How Africa’s new competition laws could reshape its business landscape

Last year signalled a continued commitment to creating an environment conducive to giving effect to the African Continental Free Trade Area’s (AfCFTA) Protocol on Competition Policy, which will bring online the AfCFTA Competition Authority. This was reflected in competition law regulation across Africa expanding at both regional and national levels in 2025.
By Richard Bryce and Nazeera Mia
11 Feb 2026
Image source: ximagination –
Image source: ximagination – 123RF.com

Regional regulators strengthened their mandates and invested in advocacy and stakeholder engagement:

  • the East African Community Competition Authority came online with a mandatory suspensory merger notification regime;
  • Comesa repealed and replaced its 2004 regulations with a modernised framework that tightens merger control provisions; introduces rules for joint ventures and digital mergers; outright prohibits absolute territorial protection, restrictions on passive sales and minimum resale price maintenance; and incorporates provisions on gatekeeper platforms, among other things; and
  • Ecowas completed its first full year of operations, issuing in some cases conditional approvals in high-profile transactions.

National regulators grew, with several existing national regulators introducing legislative reforms, or signalling an intention to do so in the short term:

  • key amendments are pending in eSwatini, Kenya and Namibia;
  • South Africa introduced new regulations and guidelines;
  • Malawi began enforcing its new Competition Act; and
  • new or revitalised regimes emerged in Benin, Burundi, The Gambia, and Togo, alongside the reconstitution of Algeria’s Competition Council.

Control and discipline

Merger control sharpened in both process and substance. Regulators took a firmer stance on procedural discipline, while substantive assessment increasingly integrated public interest considerations alongside traditional competition tests. Conditions addressing employment security, local beneficiation, SME participation and citizen ownership have become key levers in obtaining clearance.

South Africa’s approach to SME inclusion, embedded through merger conditions and mirrored in certain behavioural settlements, illustrates how socio-economic objectives continue to be integrated into remedies.

Cartel enforcement remained a central priority, with regulators motivated to drive deterrence through substantial administrative fines (in for example, Comesa, Kenya, Namibia, Nigeria, and South Africa) and, in some jurisdictions, such as Egypt, criminal referrals.

Increased scrutiny

Scrutiny of vertical arrangements also intensified, (in particular in Comesa, Kenya, Namibia, South Africa, and Tanzania), with regulators investigating companies in, among others, the sectors for fast-moving consumer goods, beverages, automotive, and telecommunications and media.

In several cases, regulators secured commitments from companies to adjust practices such as exclusive distribution, single branding, resale price maintenance, territorial restrictions, and limits on passive sales, signalling stricter compliance expectations for complex distribution strategies.

The trajectory in Eastern and Southern Africa underscores the widening perimeter of competition oversight. The Competition Authority of Kenya continued to target unfair trading practices and exploitative terms under the buyer power provisions in the Kenya Competition Act (Kenya Act).

At the same time, proposed amendments to the Kenya Act seek to introduce an ‘abuse of superior bargaining power’, signalling a deliberate expansion of the toolkit to address imbalances that fall short of dominance but nonetheless distort bargaining dynamics.

Similarly, in Comesa, the Comesa Competition and Consumer Protection Regulations, 2025, introduced abuse of economic dependence, without requiring market-wide dominance. The buyer power provisions in the South African Competition Act, introduced in 2020, remain in effect and unlike Comesa and Kenya, continue to be tethered to an establishment of dominance.

Market inquiries

Market inquiries and studies continued to be used in South Africa and Kenya as instruments for structural reform, addressing systemic anticompetitive features rather than specific prohibited conduct. The market inquiries that were concluded in 2025 in South Africa identify, and seek to rectify, perceived structural barriers (such as high concentration levels, high switching costs, and regulatory issues) that hinder competition and economic inclusion.

Several regulators across the continent operate with a dual remit covering both competition and consumer protection. In 2025, there has been a marked convergence of competition, consumer protection and data regulation among some of these regulators, which have articulated positions on privacy, discriminatory contract terms, price transparency and redress mechanisms.

Looking ahead

In 2026, enforcement is set to remain focused on digital and AI driven markets, with continued scrutiny of vertical restrictions and trading terms, and a further rise in the weight given to public interest considerations in merger approvals.

In many African countries that lack dedicated national security screening regimes, it will be notable to see how far public interest provisions within merger control are deployed to safeguard national priorities amid shifting geopolitical dynamics.

Jurisdictional complexity at a regional level will persist, but regulators are likely to continue to invest in building capacity and sharpening coordination mechanisms as filing volumes rise, which may in turn bring more intensive market oversight.

Penalties for non-compliance are expected to remain robust, and remedies are likely to increasingly embed measures aimed at advancing economic inclusion.

About the author

Richard Bryce is a Partner, and Nazeera Mia, a Knowledge Lawyer, at Bowmans.

 
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