2019 was another busy year of enforcement for China's State
Administration for Market Regulation (the
"SAMR"). On the merger front, the SAMR
issued five conditional approval decisions, demonstrating its
continued reliance on creative remedies such as hold-separate
obligations, commitments to supply products and services on fair,
reasonable and non-discriminatory terms and the implementation of
antitrust compliance mechanisms. The SAMR's decision in
Novelis' proposed acquisition of Aleris demonstrated the risks
in opting for the simplified review procedure. On the non-merger
side, the SAMR imposed heavy penalties on a number of
foreign-invested companies for anti-competitive conduct and
launched high-profile investigations involving multinational
corporations in 2019. Separately, the Supreme People's Court of
China provided valuable insight into the arbitrability of antitrust
civil claims and rules on resale price maintenance in two landmark
judgments.
