Looking back on the year 2023, this note aims to give an update on the state of play in Chinese merger control. In particular, it looks at how merger control has evolved since China’s main antitrust statute – the Anti-Monopoly Law (“AML”) – was amended for the first time in summer 2022. I will look…
On 29 May 2023, China’s antitrust authority – the State Administration for Market Regulation (“SAMR”) – published the decision against Zizhu Pharma on its webpage. The company was fined by SAMR’s Beijing branch for engaging in resale price maintenance (“RPM”), the antitrust lingo for describing a supplier forcing its distributors to follow minimum resale prices. The Zizhu Pharma decision…
Introduction On 24 March 2023, China’s antitrust authority – the State Administration for Market Regulation (“SAMR”) – issued four regulations implementing the recently amended Anti-Monopoly Law (“AML”): Regulation Prohibiting Monopoly Agreements (“Agreements Regulation”); Regulation Prohibiting Conduct Abusing a Dominant Market Position (“Abuse of Dominance Regulation”); Regulation on the Review of Concentrations between Business Operators (“Merger…
Yesterday, on 29 August 2022, clearance for the FAW/Refire joint venture transaction was announced on one of the websites of the Chinese antitrust authority – i.e., the State Administration for Market Regulation (“SAMR”). That transaction marks the first case where Chinese merger review was handled by a local SAMR office. The foundations to this delegation…
Chinese antitrust is going through what are likely the most important changes since its inception: an amendment of the Anti-Monopoly Law and the establishment of a new enforcement body. Anti-Monopoly Law amendment On 23 October 2021, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress – China’s legislature – published a draft revision of the…
Traditionally August isn’t the busiest month for Chinese antitrust enforcement. This year is no exception. But that doesn’t mean that Chinese antitrust regulators weren’t active. On the contrary. It seems many of them used the ‘summer lull’ to work on a specific project: issuing antitrust compliance guidelines. Indeed, last month, three provincial offices of the…
Since December 2020 Chinese antitrust enforcement has become visible to a larger audience. Some in the Chinese antitrust community have even identified a “new area.” A number of speeches by the country’s top leadership over the past few months – including a key speech in December 2020 – have indicated high-level support and may have…
As the number of leniency applications is down globally and competition authorities are struggling to find alternative sources of supply for antitrust complaints, China has circulated a draft rule to financially incentivise employee whistle-blowing. On 19 November 2019, the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) posted a draft of the Interim Measures on Rewards for…
In the last week of June 2019, a copy of a ground-breaking court ruling emerged on social media in China – the order by the Supreme People’s Court (SPC) in the case between Yutai Technology Feed (Yutai) and the Hainan Price Bureau. The order provides a direct answer to the question of whether or not…
On 1 July 2019, the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) made public three sets of regulations to implement China’s Anti-Monopoly Law (AML): the Interim Regulation Prohibiting Monopoly Agreements (SAMR Agreements Regulation); the Interim Regulation Prohibiting Conduct Abusing Dominant Market Positions (SAMR Abuse of Dominance Regulation); and the Interim Regulation Preventing Conduct Abusing Administrative Rights…
