China Lays a Solid Foundation for Antitrust: Major Developments in 2021

Summary

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• Proposed amendments to the Anti-Monopoly Law include the expansion of substantive prohibitions and the enhancement of penalties.
• Persons-in-charge or directly responsible persons within a company may be held personally liable if the company concludes a monopoly agreement, and are subject to a fine of up to RMB 1 million.
• China is trying to seek more fundamental solutions to market structure issues and provide more guidance on potential forms of infringements to avoid their occurrences.

China has seen an inundation of antitrust developments in 2021, possibly more than all previous years combined at least by the number of fines imposed. The Anti-Monopoly Law (AML) (中华人民共和国反垄断法) has been undergoing amendments after its enforcement over a decade or so ago, with its enforcement authority elevated and expanded, and several precedent penalty decisions handed down to deal with uncharted waters that some believed as "not a priority for enforcement".

These changes can be broken down by looking at the common underlying theme–a clear direction for stronger, more active, more confident and also more efficient enforcement actions covering the full spectrum of "before, during and after the conduct", which will be the resounding theme for the next decade. Correspondingly, further enhanced deterrence covering more types of infringements, endeavors to reduce the difficulties to tackle anti-competitive conduct, preparedness to set precedents in new areas and efforts to solve issues before they occur, which are all on a strong footing of elevating the antitrust authority into a national level administration, will be discussed.