New Merger Notification Thresholds Under The AML Published

The State Council has published the long-awaited Regulation on Notification Thresholds for Concentrations of Undertakings (the "Regulation").¹The new thresholds supplement the merger control rules under the Anti-Monopoly Law ("AML"), which contains no specific notification thresholds. The new Regulation became effective upon promulgation on August 3, 2008.

The Regulation

The Regulation consists of only five provisions. The first article states that this Regulation is promulgated under the authorization of the AML. Article 2 recites the forms of concentrations, which are the same as Article 20 of the AML, namely: (1) mergers of multiple undertakings; (2) one undertaking gaining control over another by means of equity or asset purchase; and (3) one undertaking gaining controlling rights or decisive influence over another by means of contracts or other means. Article 5 of the Regulation provides that the Regulation will come into effect upon promulgation. The only