A. Background 

By a notice dated 1 July 2025, the East African Community Competition Authority (the EACCA) announced to members of the East African Community (the EAC) that from 1 November 2025, it will begin receiving merger notifications and, reviewing, approving or remedying cross-border mergers that have an anticompetitive effect in the EAC.

The EAC comprises eight member states: the Republic of Kenya; the Republic of Burundi; the Democratic Republic of Congo; the Federal Republic of Somalia; the Republic of Rwanda; the Republic of South Sudan; the Republic of Uganda; and the United Republic of Tanzania.

B. The EAC competition regime

(i) The EAC competition policy 

The East African Community Competition Act, 2006 (the Act) was enacted to promote the EAC competition policy. This includes enhancing the welfare of the people in the EAC by, among other things:

• protecting all market participants' freedom to compete by prohibiting anti-competitive practices; and
• protecting the opening of EAC member states’ markets against the creation of barriers interstate trade and economic transactions by market participants.

To promote the EAC competition policy, the Act made provisions on key areas affecting competition such as mergers and acquisitions, prohibition of anti-competitive concerted practices, and abuse of market dominance.

The EACCA was also established under section 37 of the Act to, among other functions, implement the Act.

However, the Act only came in to force on 1 December 2014. 

(ii) Development of the EACCA notification requirements

Even though the Act came into force on 1 December 2014, there were no substantive provisions under the Act in respect of notification of cross-border mergers and acquisitions to the EACCA.

In 2010, the EACCA issued the East African Competition Regulations, 2010. These regulations failed to address the threshold for notifiable mergers and acquisitions, and the applicable fees.

In 2023, the EACCA enacted the East African Community Competition (Amendment) Act, 2023 (the Amendment Act) to, among other things, amend the Act, confer legal personality on the EACCA and empower the EACCA to impose and collect financial penalties.

The Amendment Act provided that, by a notice in the Gazette, members of the EAC shall be notified of the notifiable cross-border merger thresholds. 

On 1 July 2025, the EACCA informed the EAC members about the notifiable merger thresholds and applicable notification fees.

C. Key provisions relating to the EACCA notifiable mergers

Parties to a cross-border merger or acquisition within the EAC should be mindful of the following requirements under the Act and the East African Community Competition (Mergers and Acquisitions) Regulations, 2025 (the Regulations).

(i) Notifiable mergers and acquisitions 

A cross-border merger or acquisition is notifiable to the EACCA upon conclusion of the agreement in respect of such merger or acquisition if:

• it involves undertakings with operations in two or more EAC member states;
• the combined turnover or assets in the EAC of the merging undertakings, whichever is higher, equals or exceeds US$35 million; and
• at least two undertakings to the merger or acquisition have a combined turnover or assets of US$20 million in the EAC, unless each of the parties to a merger achieves at least two-thirds of its aggregate turnover or assets in the EAC within one and the same member state.

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