Everything You Must Know About China's Antitrust Law Revision And Authority Reshuffle

China has recently witnessed landscape reform in the antitrust regime at the end of 2021: the draft amendment ("Draft Amendment") to the Anti-Monopoly Law ("AML") was published for public comments on 23 October and the national anti-monopoly bureau ("Anti-monopoly Bureau") was inaugurated in Beijing on 18 November. With the law amendment and the institutional reshuffle, some widely held perception of antitrust practice in China should be refreshed. Here we organize the key points that every company with business in China should know about the latest reform.

I. The Law Amendment: Slight change of rules while severer liabilities

The current AML came into effect in 2008 and the amendment work started in around 2017. On 23 October, the latest draft version, the Draft Amendment, was published to seek public comments by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress. Compared to previously released draft versions, the Draft Amendment do not make substantial