Saudi General Authority for Competition

Campaigners are claiming a new victory in the battle to improve the status of professional women in Saudi Arabia, following the appointment of a woman to a position of judicial rank in the Kingdom, according to several people close to the matter.

Consumer protection regulator the General Authority for Competition (GAC) has selected Dr Arwa Al-Jalal as a member of the Committee for Review and Adjudication of Competition Law Violations, according to two senior lawyers at international law firms with knowledge of the matter, and social media updates by the Authority's governor, Dr Abdulaziz Al-Zoom.

Saudi Arabia updated 2004 legislation with the introduction of a new competition law in 2019, and gave the GAC a mandate to implement it.

Al-Jalal's appointment has been met with praise from equal rights campaigners and voices.

"Congratulations on the decision to appoint the first Saudi woman to a quasi-judicial position in the Kingdom," tweeted Shura Council (Consultative Assembly) member, Latifa Al-Shaalan—one of 30 women to have been appointed to the 150-member body since 2013.

The appointment comes four years after the East Province Administrative Appeals Court appointed its first female commercial arbitrator, Shaimaa Al-Jibran, despite objections from one of the parties.

Al-Jalal is an assistant professor in the Department of Private Law at King Saud University's Faculty of Law and Political Science, in Riyadh, according to a website profile.

Al-Jalal did not respond to requests for comment.

Set up in 2017, the General Authority for Competition (GAC), seeks to "promote and protect fair competition, and to combat monopolistic practices that affect legitimate competition."

Its latest communique, issued on January 21, said the Committee was taking action on cases of abuse of dominant market position, bid-rigging in the contracting sector, especially on government tenders, and potential violations by firms engaged in the manufacture and distribution of building materials, as well as the food processing industry.

King Salman and his administration have previously said they have little tolerance for corruption, and Saudi Arabia is tightening its oversight of business malpractice and corruption.

Set up in 2011, Saudi agency Nazaha (the Control and Anticorruption Authority) exists to fight abuse of public and other positions. Since late May, it said it had initiated 127 cases, the largest involving forgery, money laundering, accounting fraud, creation of shell companies, bribery, and SIM card fraud.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman won a measure of public support after placing several prominent government officials and businessmen under house arrest at a hotel in Riyadh in 2017, an anti-corruption measure said to have been initiated due to $100 billion of embezzlement in recent decades.

The GAC did not respond to a request for comment.

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