Antitrust Investigations In China: Putting Things In Perspective

The current press is buzzing with news about the recent increase in antitrust investigations involving foreign companies with operations in China, and reports of foreign companies being told to expect higher fines if they "put up a fight" during investigations. At the same time, the Chinese enforcement agencies have started to make their decisions public. Putting these developments in perspective, the take-away is that antitrust in China should be taken seriously, the enforcement agencies are still in the development stage, and some progress is being made in transparency of decision-making.

China's Anti-Monopoly Law ("AML") is a mere five years old. The National Development and Reform Commission ("NDRC") enforces the AML with regard to price-related anti-competitive conduct such as price-fixing and retail price maintenance while the State Administration for Industry and Commerce ("SAIC") enforces the AML with regard to non-price related anticompetitive conduct such