The Imminent Release of China's Anti-Monopoly Law - What to Expect

By John Yong Ren and Ning Yang, T&D Associates, Beijing

In August 1985, the Legislative Affairs Bureau of the State Council established a committee to draft China's Anti-monopoly Law (中华人民共和国反垄断法)(AML). It was not until 1994, however, when its legislative agenda was launched. After a decade of further deliberations, legislative proposals for a comprehensive antitrust regime in the PRC are finally moving ahead.

Throughout the drafting process, the US antitrust enforcement agencies, the European Commission's DG COMP, the Japan Fair Trade Commission, in addition to a number of private organizations, have submitted comments and proposed revisions to the PRC drafting team. These include three Joint Comments submitted by the American Bar Association (ABA) Sections of Antitrust Law and International Law (ABA Joint Submission).¹ In July 2005, the ABA submitted its updated Joint Submission to the PRC State Council, delivering its comments on the April 8 2005 revised draft of the AML (the 'April AML Draft'). The comments include some concerns in areas such as standards of substantiality, collective dominance, vague and elusive concepts, intellectual property rights and administrative monopoly.