Slow Down! Follow Merger Filing Procedures Step By Step

Background

On 29 September 2015, the Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China ("MOFCOM") issued four penalty decisions on parties involved in four merger cases that failed to fulfill their notification obligations under the Anti-Monopoly Law ("AML"). It is the second time that MOFCOM has announced penalties on non-filers following the penalty decision for Tsinghua Unigroup's failure to notify its acquisition of RDA Microelectronics in December 2014.

Penalties

The four penalties are:

• Bestv New Media and Microsoft were each fined RMB 200,000 for their failure to make a merger filing prior to the establishment of a joint venture;
• Bombardier Transportation Sweden and CSR Nanjing Puzhen were each fined RMB 150,000 for their failure to submit a merger filing prior to the establishment of a joint venture;