Merger Control Review 2019

Introduction

The year 2019 marked the 11th anniversary of the implementation of the Anti-monopoly Law and was also the first full calendar year since the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) took over the role as China's single centralised antitrust enforcement agency.

The SAMR maintained a consistently rigorous and prudent attitude towards merger control review in 2019. The overall case handling efficiency has been improved in view of the fact that the total number of cases concluded increased while the average time for case reviews was reduced. The SAMR concluded 465 cases in 2019. Among them, the SAMR unconditionally approved 460 cases and conditionally approved five cases. As to the cases that were conditionally approved, the SAMR imposed various tailored conditions. There was no prohibited merger case in 2019. In addition, the SAMR investigated more non-filing cases and imposed more penalties on non-filers compared with 2018. In particular, a