Anti-monopoly Commission of the State Council, Guidelines on the General Conditions and Procedures for the Exemption of Monopolistic Agreements (Draft for Comments)

(1) the specific form and effect of the realization by the agreement of the circumstances for exemption set forth in Items (1) to (6) of the first paragraph of Article 15 of the Anti-monopoly Law;

(2) the causal relationship between the agreement and the realization of the circumstance in question; and

(3) the importance of the agreement in realizing the circumstance in question (Article 7).

Issued: May 12 2016

Applicability: For the purposes of these Guidelines, the term “exemption” means that a business operator can demonstrate that the agreement reached by it complies with Article 15 of the Anti-monopoly Law, thereby making the circumstances set forth in Articles 13 and 14 inapplicable.

For the purposes of these Guidelines, the term “application for exemption” means that, after the anti-monopoly law enforcement authority has launched an investigation of the suspected reaching or implementation of a monopolistic agreement and before it has rendered a decision, the business operator or industry association applies to the anti-monopoly law enforcement authority for an exemption in accordance with relevant provisions of the Anti-monopoly Law (Article 2).

Main contents: When an anti-monopoly law enforcement authority examines whether an agreement is eligible for an exemption, it shall mainly take into consideration the following factors:

(1) the specific form and effect of the realization by the agreement of the circumstances for exemption set forth in Items (1) to (6) of the first paragraph of Article 15 of the Anti-monopoly Law;

(2) the causal relationship between the agreement and the realization of the circumstance in question; and

(3) the importance of the agreement in realizing the circumstance in question (Article 7).