On 14 January 2025, the European Commission (“Commission”) published the findings of its first investigation under the EU’s International Procurement Instrument (“IPI”). Findings of the investigation concludes that China unfairly treated EU medical devices and suppliers in its public procurement.[1] The Chinese government did not contest these findings, but noted (accurately) that it had not…
Legislative developments In terms of legislative developments, the year of 2024 was marked by the State Council’s issuance of the Regulation on Fair Competition Review. It supplemented the 2021 Detailed Rules for the Implementation of the Fair Competition Review System and provided a higher-level legal basis for the scope, standards, mechanisms, and oversight of fair…
The FSR and public procurement The primary objective of the Foreign Subsidies Regulation (FSR) is to address the influence of foreign subsidies that may distort the integrity of the EU’s internal market. This encompasses scenarios where recipients gain an unfair advantage enabling them to secure public procurement contracts within the EU at the expense of…
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…
Legislative developments Following the amendment of the Anti-Monopoly Law (AML) in 2022, the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) unveiled a series of departmental regulations in March 2023: (1) Provisions on Prohibiting Monopoly Agreements; (2) Provisions on Prohibiting Abuse of Dominant Market Position; (3) Provisions on the Examination of Concentrations of Undertakings; (4) Provisions on…
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…
On 12 January 2023, the new EU Foreign Subsidies Regulation (FSR) entered into force. The majority of the FSR will start to apply on 12 July 2023. The FSR constitutes a new investigatory review tool for the European Commission. It will focus on economic behaviour on the internal market by companies who received foreign subsidies…
The year of 2022 was marked by the first amendment of China’s Anti-Monopoly Law (AML) since its entry into force in 2008 and the gradual shift of the enforcement focus towards the objectives of the unified national market. Amendment of the Anti-Monopoly Law and other legislative developments First, the AML amendment incorporated the “fair…
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…
