The Disputes Microsoft is sued for alleged excessive pricing in China by Guangzhou Kam Hing Textile Dyeing Co., Ltd. (Guangzhou Kam Hing). In March 2012, Microsoft sued Guangzhou Kam Hing in the Nansha District People’s Court (Nansha Court) for using pirated Microsoft software. According to the news report, the Hong Kong parent company of Guangzhou…

On 18 May 2012, the Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court (‘Shanghai Court’) dismissed allegations that Johnson & Johnson Medical (China) Ltd. and its Shanghai branch had set a minimum resale price in beach of China’s Anti-Monopoly Law (‘AML’) and rejected the plaintiff’s claim of damages of CNY 14.4 million (‘J&J RPM case’). It is…

On 19 May 2012, China’s Ministry of Commerce (‘MOFCOM’) announced its conditional clearance decision on the acquisition of Motorola Mobility by Google, which removed the last hurdle for the USD12.5 billion vertical deal. The MOFCOM is the only antitrust authority to impose remedies on its clearance of the transaction. The US Department of Justice, the…

The feud between the Chinese Internet companies Qihoo 360 Technology Co., Ltd. (‘Qihoo 360’) and Tencent Inc. (‘Tencent’) has been simmering for nearly two years. This article spotlights the facts and major issues of the dispute. The Facts Tencent runs QQ, the most popular instant messaging (‘IM’) service in the mainland China with over 700…

Johnson & Johnson Medical (China) Ltd. (‘J&J Medical’) and its Shanghai branch are sued in China for minimum resale price maintenance (RPM) by a Beijing-based distributor. This is the first private litigation that challenges RPM pursuant to China’s Anti-Monopoly Law (AML). The Facts Rainbow Medical Equipment & Supplies Co. (‘Rainbow’) distributed J&J suturing products for…

The recent Dongfeng Nissan Case shed some interesting lights on the status of vertical restraints rules in China, three years after China’s Anti-Monopoly Law (AML) became effective in August 2008. Currently, China’s competition law regime is still insufficiently equipped to assess and deal with vertical restraints, in spite of frequent complaints on alleged anticompetitive vertical…