The Chinese government announced on March 13, 2018, that it will consolidate the duties of three competition agencies into a new government agency to handle all antitrust matters. While it is too early to tell how this reorganization will impact China’s review of transactions and conduct cases, we believe that this change could lead to greater consistency and potentially more experienced attorneys reviewing competition matters.
by Henry L.T. Chen, Frank Schoneveld, Jared Nelson and Sean Pan
China’s Ministry of Commerce recently announced that it opened four investigations during 2012 into suspected non-compliance with China’s merger control notification procedures. The outcomes of the investigations are still uncertain, but the actions clearly show increased efforts to ensure compliance through enforcement of the law. Although the number of investigations was fairly low in 2012, the four cases are part of a new, larger trend of enforcement that began with a 2011 announcement to prioritize these investigations and was reinforced by new interim measures aimed at specifying compliance obligations and enforcement procedures. Multinational companies with operations in China are encouraged to increase compliance efforts in this area in order to avoid becoming targets of this new enforcement priority.
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by Henry L.T. Chen, Frank Schoneveld, Alex An, Brian Fu and Angel Wang
McDermott Will & Emery has released the latest China Law Alert: Focus on Competition, which provides insight on current issues surrounding cross-border antitrust and transactional issues.
China’s New Merger Control Regime Makes Major Progress in Its First Three Years
It is now just more than three years since China’s Anti-Monopoly Law (AML) was introduced. Compared with the well-established practices of US antitrust and EU competition authorities, AML enforcement is still in its infancy. However, China’s AML regulators, especially the authority in charge of merger control, the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM), has moved quickly to make its mark on international business. Now, most large, cross-border mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures must also successfully pass the rigors of review by MOFCOM as well as the European Commission and the US Department of Justice (DOJ) and/or Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Read the full article here.
NDRC and SAIC’s Actions in 2011 and Prospects in 2012
China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC) are the two authorities in charge of investigation and supervision of “monopoly” agreements and abuses of dominant market position. NDRC focuses on price-related cases while SAIC takes care of non-price related violations of the law. Compared to MOFCOM, which is responsible for merger control, NDRC and SAIC have been relatively quite since China’s AML came into force on 1 August 2008. Read the full article here.
Civil Litigation under China’s Anti-Monopoly Law
Since the introduction of the China AML in August 2008, Chinese courts have experimented with various methods of civil dispute adjudication based on breach of the AML. In general, China’s courts have very limited judicial experience with such cases. A number of civil cases have been brought before the courts, but very few, if any, have resulted in a successful judgment for breach of the AML. Read the full article here.
Might the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) Become A New Enforcement Authority for China’s Competition Laws?
In addition to MOFCOM, SAIC and NDRC, the three major enforcement authorities for the anti-unfair competition and anti-monopoly laws, it seems the MIIT might also become a regulator of competition in the telecommunications sector. In addition to a Draft Regulation on Internet Information Services, published for consultation in January 2012, MIIT released an “Opinion on Regulating the Business Activities of Basic Telecommunications Carriers on Campuses” (the Opinion) on 30 June 2011. Read the full article here.
by Henry L.T. Chen, Frank Schoneveld and Alex An
Recently, ENN Energy Holdings Limited and China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation jointly announced the acquisition of all outstanding shares in China Gas Holdings Limited. This acquisition triggers a requirement to notify and obtain clearance from China’s Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM). Therefore, MOFCOM’s approval will be one of the preconditions for ENN Energy and Sinopec to close the transaction.
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by Henry L.T. Chen, Frank Schoneveld and Brian Fu
On 3 February 2011, the State Council promulgated the “Notice of the General Office of the State Council on Launching the Security Review Mechanism for Mergers and Acquisition of Domestic Enterprise by Foreign Investors,” which established the national security review system for merger and acquisition (M&A) transactions by foreign investors in China. On 25 August 2011, after a trial implementation period of about six months of an interim regulation on the security review system, the Ministry of Commerce finalised and issued the “Regulation on Implementing of the Security Review System for Mergers and Acquisitions of Domestic Enterprises by Foreign Investors,” which came into effect 1 September 2011. The national security review system as established and specified under the notice and the regulation may have a broad impact on prospective M&A transactions by foreign investors in China.
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by Henry L.T. Chen and Frank Schoneveld
To evaluate the competitive impact of an anti-monopoly review on the market of mergers and acquisitions (or concentration) and to guide business operators when filing notification of a concentration, the Ministry of Commerce of China has introduced Interim Measures on Evaluating Competitive Influence Caused by the Concentration of Business Operators (Draft for Comments) for public comment. The deadline for submission of comments is June 13, 2011.
To view the full article, click here.
by Henry L.T. Chen, Frank Schoneveld and Michael Xu
The China Automobile Dealers Association recently issued a formal complaint to Mercedes-Benz Beijing regarding its allegedly illegal “double limit” policy for car dealers—minimum prices and restrictions on sales into other dealers` territories—revealing tension between a widespread industry practice and China’s Anti-Monopoly Law.
To read the full article, please visit: https://www.mwechinalaw.com/news/2011/chinalawalert0411a.htm.
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