On 4 December 2014, the Provisions of the Ministry of
Commerce on Imposing Additional Restrictive Conditions on the
Concentration of Business Operators (for Trial Implementation)
(hereinafter the "Provisions of Restrictive
Conditions") was officially enacted by the Ministry of
Commerce of the People's Republic of China (MOFCOM), based on
its 2013 draft version (hereinafter the "2013 Draft
Provisions"). Restrictive conditions in merger reviews
are also referred to as "merger remedies". Pursuant to
Articles 28 and 29 of the Anti-monopoly Law (hereinafter
"AML"), where a concentration of business operators will
or may eliminate or restrict competition, MOFCOM may decide to
attach restrictive conditions to its clearance decision in order to
reduce the adverse impacts on competition. MOFCOM has given
conditional clearance in 24 cases since AML came into effect. Given
that the imposition of restrictive conditions on proposed
transactions may impact heavily on the parties and
