The Supreme People's Court's Landmark Anti-Monopoly and Anti-Unfair Competition Cases

Summary

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• The SPC's annual selection of anti-monopoly and anti-unfair competition cases provides a key guide to trends in Chinese jurisprudence
• This year, five AML cases and five anti-competition cases decided by the lower courts were selected
• Issues covered include civil lawsuits in vertical monopoly agreement cases, court oversight of violations of good faith and business ethics, and competitive interests for datasets which are not easy to protect under any IP law

It is expected that the competition cases will take a prominent role in the docket of the Supreme People's Court in the next few years

The Supreme People's Court (SPC) recently published its 2023 Landmark Anti-Monopoly and Anti-Unfair Competition Cases (the Landmark Cases Report) during the second annual China Fair Competition Policy Publicity Week (CFCPPW) in September 2023. The CFCPPW was established in 2022 to "take stronger action against monopolies and unfair competition". It is expected that the competition cases will take a prominent role in the docket of the Supreme People's Court in the next few years.

Meanwhile, the State Anti-Monopoly Bureau (SAMB), which was established in 2021 and consolidated the regulatory powers over AML compliance issues, published its 2022 Annual Report of China's Anti-Monopoly Enforcement. According to the SAMB's report, Anti-Monopoly Bureaus at all levels concluded 187 anti-monopoly investigations during that year, with total fines of RMB 784 million (around USD 107.31 million) imposed. By way of example, the Chinese affiliate of the Swiss company Straumann was fined RMB 34 million (around USD 4 million) for price fixing of dental implants. Some of the investigations noted in the 2022 Report gave rise to antimonopoly litigations, providing courts an opportunity to review certain issues from the investigations.