Our experience predates the modern statute: M&Z advised on anti-trust matters under the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices (Control and Prevention) Ordinance, 1970 — under the old Monopolies Control Authority — long before the Competition Act came into force.

We have particular depth in merger control, where every merger affecting the relevant reportable market must be notified to the Competition Commission of Pakistan, and we regularly advise on price-fixing, market allocation, discriminatory pricing and deceptive marketing practices. M&Z is featured on antitrustasia.com as a firm with an active anti-trust and competition practice.

A selection of our competition and anti-trust matters. Each pre-merger application below was filed under Section 11(3) of the Competition Act, 2010 read with Regulation 5 of the Competition (Merger Control) Regulations 2007:

• Faysal Bank Limited — pre-merger clearance for the merger of RBS Pakistan into Faysal Bank.
• Summit Bank Limited — pre-merger clearance for the mergers of Atlas Bank and MyBank into Summit Bank.
• Suroor Investments — pre-merger clearance for the acquisition of a majority stake in Arif Habib Bank.
• GlaxoSmithKline Pakistan Limited — pre-merger clearance for the mergers of Bristol Myers Squibb Pakistan and Stiefel Laboratories Pakistan into GSK.
• Emirates Global Islamic Bank Pakistan Limited — pre-merger clearance for its merger into Al Baraka Islamic Bank Pakistan.
• Bestways Group — pre-merger clearance for its acquisition of a majority stake in United Bank Limited.
• Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited — pre-merger clearance for its acquisition of Rozgar Microfinance Bank.
• Procter & Gamble — defended the “Head & Shoulders” advertising claims before the Competition Commission; decided in P&G’s favour and reported in Corporate Law Decisions.
• Tetra Pak Pakistan — defended an abuse-of-dominance allegation in the packaging sector; decided in its favour (Corporate Law Decisions).
• Reckitt Benckiser Pakistan — complaint against S.C. Johnson over its “Baygon” market-leadership claim; decided in Reckitt Benckiser’s favour (Corporate Law Decisions).
• Battery-sector matter — proceedings before the Competition Commission of Pakistan.