Meeting of the permanent commission

The Permanent Commission of the Competition Council held its meeting, via video conference, on Friday, April 10, 2020 at 10:00 a.m., under the chairmanship of Mr. Driss GUERRAOUI, President of the Council.

After a thorough examination of the first item on the agenda, the Permanent Commission decided to authorize the economic concentration operation involving the acquisition of all the shares making up the share capital of “Frulact S.G.P.S. S.A.” by the investment fund “Ardian Buyout Fund VII B”, as it will not affect competition in the relevant market.

In addition, the Members of the Permanent Commission adopted two inadmissibility decisions concerning the following files:

• • • • • The referral from the National Union of Tourist Transport in Morocco concerning possible anticompetitive practices in the insurance market in the Tourist Transport sector, which could be attributed to the two insurance companies “Compagnie d’Assurance de Transport (CAT)” and “Mutuelle des Assurances des Transporteurs Unis (MATU)”;
        • The referral from the company “Desert Marocain S.A.R.L.” regarding the tender for the guarding and surveillance of school and administrative premises under the Provincial Directorate of the Ministry of National Education, Vocational Training, Higher Education, and Scientific Research in Taza.

At the end of the meeting, the President informed the Members of the holding of an extraordinary session of the Plenary Formation of the Council on Thursday, May 14, 2020. Its agenda will include the following points:

• • • • • Approval of the minutes of the meeting of the fifth ordinary session of the Plenary Formation of the Council held on February 27, 2020;
        • Presentation, discussion, and approval of the Annual Report project for the year 2019;
        • Presentation, discussion, and approval of the report on the referral concerning e-commerce through payment by credit card;
        • Various points.

The President also asked the Members of the Permanent Commission to mobilize the four sections of the Council for a thorough examination of the state of competition at the national and international levels in order to prepare all Council bodies for a joint contribution to the 2020 annual report, which should include a section on this issue in accordance with the decision taken by the Plenary Formation of the Council held on Thursday, February 27, 2020.

Furthermore, the President requested that the sections also reflect on the competitive dysfunctions experienced in the energy, banking, insurance, telecommunications, construction materials (cement, concrete, brickworks), health (pharmaceutical industry, medical devices, private medical facilities), retail trade (hypermarkets…), transport (urban and maritime), liberal professions (architects, accountants, notaries, lawyers, adouls…), according to a schedule to be mutually agreed upon by their members within their respective sections and which can be spread over a period covering the duration of the Council’s action plan, as determined for 2019-2023 by its deliberative body.

In this regard, the President informed the Members that the agenda of the upcoming meetings of the Permanent Commission will include the progress of the sections’ work on all these subjects, in order to make the activities of the Permanent Commission a highlight of the exercise of its missions, alongside the work devoted to the examination of files related to economic concentration operations.

It should be noted that the Permanent Commission had previously approved the minutes of its meeting held on Friday, April 03, 2020.