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ARTICLE · 15 MAY 2014

What do China’s MOFCOM’s recent merger clearance decisions mean for you?

Corrs Chambers Westgarth
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The decisions are likely to encourage merger parties to notify MOFCOM, and offer more creative approaches to remedies.

AustraliaAntitrust/Competition Law
Thomas Jones (Formerly With Corrs Chambers Westgarth)
Thomas Jones (Formerly With Corrs Chambers Westgarth)
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China's Anti-Monopoly Law (AML) is one of the youngest antitrust laws in the world having come into effect just over five years ago.

The AML has primarily been enforced by Ministry of Commerce People's Republic of China (中华人民共和国商务部), or MOFCOM. In the years since the law's introduction, MOFCOM's capabilities in key areas such as competition and market analysis as well as monitoring and enforcement have grown rapidly.

MOFCOM's latest decisions demonstrate its increasing sophistication, particularly in its willingness to consider complex behavioural and structural remedies. Also apparent, is MOFCOM's readiness to impose harsher merger remedies where key sectors of China's economy are involved. This is most evident in last year's conditional approval of the global mega deal between Glencore and Xstrata.

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