Comments On MOFCOM’s Criteria For Simple Cases Of Undertaking Concentrations

On February 11, 2014, the Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China ("MOFCOM") released Interim Rules of the Criteria for Simple Cases of Undertaking Concentrations (the "Interim Rules"), which has been effective as of 12 February, 2014.

I. MODIFICATIONS OF THE INTERIM RULES MADE ON ITS PREVIOUS OPINION-SOLICITING DRAFT

The officially promulgated Interim Rules does not differ substantially from its previous draft for soliciting public opinions that was published on April 3, 2013 by MOFCOM. We list two major differences as below:

1. The final version further specifies the conditions for recognizing simple cases involving conglomerate merger & acquisition in Article 2.3. The previous draft defined that 'undertakings participating in the concentration that have no upstream or downstream relationships and hold less than 25% shares in each market'. It should be literally interpreted that if undertakings participating in the concentration have no