China's Anti-monopoly Law – the First Decade in Review
April 19, 2018 | BY
Fay Zhou, Xi LiaoThe Anti-monopoly Law (AML) has undergone an evolution since its advent, nearly adecade ago. Now, the process for simple cases has been streamlined to ensure efficientapprovals, allowing the competition authority greater time and resources to scrutinizemore complex and challenging deals. Active enforcement has lent to the increasedawareness of antitrust issues among companies and the general public. Fay Zhou and XiLiao of Linklaters provide a brief look back at the AML's significant growth spurts and sharesome guidance on what lies ahead.
China's Anti-monopoly Law (AML) (反垄断法) came into effect on August 1, 2008 and is due to celebrate its tenth anniversary this year. This article will review the significant developments over the past decade in the areas of merger control, conduct rules and civil litigation, and will discuss how they have shaped the country's competition framework on both substance and procedure. Drawing on the evolution, the article also identifies some likely future trends of Chinese enforcement.
MERGER CONTROL
The Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM), which reviews merger control filings, quickly flexed its muscle to the world early on. It cleared the Anheuser-Busch/InBev transaction subject to conditions only three months after the AML's entry into force. A few months later, it rendered the first ever prohibition case, blocking the acquisition of Huiyuan by Coca Cola, based primarily on concerns of controversial conglomerate effects.
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