Legislation
Shaanxi AMR and Shaanxi Department of Finance issue Implementing Rules of Shaanxi Province on Rewarding Whistleblowing against Major Illegalities in Market Regulation Field
On December 9, 2022, to encourage the public to actively report major illegalities in the market regulation field and promote social co-governance, Shaanxi Administration for Market Regulation ("AMR") and Shaanxi Department of Finance have jointly studied and formulated the Implementing Rules of Shaanxi Province on Rewarding Whistleblowing against Major Illegalities in the Market Regulation Field. 1
Authorities
Antitrust Enforcement Division II of SAMR Responds to Messages on Matters Relating to Notification for Concentration of Undertakings
On December 5, 2022, the Antitrust Enforcement Division II of State Administration for Market Regulation ("SAMR") responded to the messages on matters such as the notification threshold, notifying subject, notification materials, notification process and review period in the notification for concentration of undertakings. 2
Public Enforcement
CNKI Imposed Anti-Monopoly Administrative Penalty of CNY 87.6 million amounting to 5% of its Turnover for Abuse of Dominant Market Position
On December 26, 2022, according to the investigation conducted by the SAMR into the alleged monopolistic conduct of China National Knowledge Infrastructure ("CNKI") under the Anti-monopoly Law of the People's Republic of China ("AML"), CNKI has a dominant position in the market of Chinese academic literature online database services within China. SAMR made an administrative penalty decision in accordance with the law, ordering CNKI to discontinue the illegal practices and imposing the fine of 5% of its sales of CNY 1.752 billion in China in 2021, amounting to CNY87.6 million. 3
Water Supplier Company Fined CNY 2.2 million by Antitrust Enforcement Authorities for Overcharging
On December 21, Rizhao WaterSupply Co., Ltd was fined CNY 2.1857 million for abuse of dominant market position by the Shandong AMR in accordance with the AML and the Interim Provisions on Prohibition of Abuse of Dominant Market Position. 4
Zhejiang Civil Explosives Association and Others Fined About CNY 53 million for Organizing and Implementing Monopoly Agreement
On December 16, it was announced that the Zhejiang Civil Explosive Materials Trade Association, Zhejiang Materials Industry Civil Explosives Monopoly Co., Ltd., Zhejiang Xinlian Industrial Explosive Equipment Co., Ltd, Zhejiang Lihua Civil Explosive Co., Ltd, Zhejiang Shunyuan Chemical Co.,Ltd were fined a total of approximately CNY 53 million by the Zhejiang AMR for entering into and implementing a monopoly agreement. 5
CSRC Requires a Civil Explosive Company to Respond about Investigation into Alleged Horizontal Monopoly Agreement
On December 12, under the requirement of China Security Regulatory Commission ("CSRC"), Hunan Nanling Civil Explosive Material Co., Ltd ("Nanling Explosive") issued an announcement that Nanling Explosive and Gezhouba Explosive Guangxi Weiqi Chemical Co., Ltd, which is the holding subsidiary of the subject of the proposed asset acquisition by Nanling Explosive, are under anti-monopoly investigation. According to the announcement, the companies concerned had attended industry communication meetings organized by some provincial civil explosives industry associations, but the announcement also stated that the companies were not engaged in acts such as dividing the market and fixing the price of civil explosives products. At present, the Hunan AMR has filed a case against Nanling Explosive, and the preliminary investigation has not yet revealed any situation that shows detriment to the public interest or constitutes a major violation of the law. 6
Northeast Pharm Fined CNY 133 million for Abusing Dominant Market Position by Selling Levocarnitine API at High Prices
On December 12, Northeast Pharmaceutical Group ("Northeast Pharm") announced that it had received a Notice of Administrative Penalty from the Liaoning AMR. The Liaoning AMR found that Northeast Pharm had abused its dominant position in the levocarnitine active pharmaceutical ingredient ("API") market in China and committed the act of selling levocarnitine API at unfairly high prices, which violated the AML and constituted the abuse of dominant market position by selling goods at unfairly high prices. The Liaoning AMR imposed a lighter fine on it, totaling CNY 133 million. 7
First Case of Suspected Administrative Monopoly Investigated by the Office of Joint Conference on Fair Competition Review at County Level
On December 12, the Office of the Joint Conference on Fair Competition Review of Puge County received complaints from 10 hydropower stations reflecting that the cost of lightning protection testing was too high and suspected to constitute monopoly act. After investigation, it was found that the Notice on Further Strengthening the Safety of Lightning Protection in the County jointly issued by the Meteorological Bureau and the Emergency Management Bureau of Puge County was suspected of violating Article 39 of the AML and Article 13 of the Rules for the Implementation of the Fair Competition Review System. The Puge AMR issued a notice ordering correction. At present, the Meteorological Bureau of Puge County has completed the rectification. 8
Local Health Commission Corrected for Abusing Administrative Powers to Restrict Procurement, Distribution and Bidding of Consumables, Medicine and Equipment
On December 6, SAMR issued the 2022 Special Action Cases to Deter Abuse of Administrative Power to Exclude and Restrict Competition in Law Enforcement (the Third Batch), which once again named a number of local government entities for abusing administrative power to exclude and restrict competition and other irregularities and violations. Among them, there was a case where the local Health Commission abused its administrative power to exclude and restrict the competition of other pharmaceutical enterprises. 9
Government Procurement Contract Ruled Invalid for Involving Administrative Monopoly
On December 5, the Nantong Intermediate People's Court in the Chinese Province of Jiangsu issued a final judgment on a government procurement contract dispute, confirming the invalidity of the government procurement contract being sued and stating that administrative activities shall not impair the right of market players to participate fairly in market competition. 10
Merger Control
Korean Air Lines' Acquisition of Asiana Airlines Conditionally Clearly by the SAMR
On December 26, 2022, upon review, SAMR decided to conditionally clear the anti-monopoly notification of the concentration of undertakings for the proposed acquisition of equity in Asiana Airlines by Korean Air Lines. 11
Courts LitigationBeijing IPC: Understanding of Civil Public Interest Litigation under the AML
On December 6, 2022, the Beijing Intellectual Property Court ("IPC") published a review about the features of the civil public interest litigation system under the AML, which include specific plaintiffs, statutory causes of action, specialized jurisdictional courts and ordinary rules of litigation. 12
SPC: CSL Photo Exclusivity Does Not Constitute Monopoly, Procedure Is legal
On December 2, 2022, the Supreme People's Court ("SPC") issued a number of typical anti-monopoly cases, among which the case of the abuse of market dominant position dispute involving the use of pictures of the Chinese Super League ("CSL") was listed. This case clarified the standard of anti-monopoly judicial review in the exclusive licensing of commercial rights in sports events, and became a typical anti-monopoly case involving sports events. 13
Jiangsu High People's Court Briefs on Anti-monopoly and Anti-unfair Competition Judicial Work from 2019 to 2022 and Releases 10 Typical Enforcement Cases
On December 1, to create a market-oriented, rule of law-based and international first-class business environment, and in line with the theme of the first "China's Fair Competition Policy Publicity Week", the Jiangsu High People's Court and the Jiangsu AMR jointly held a press conference to brief the enforcement and judicial work on anti-monopoly and anti-unfair competition of the Jiangsu province since 2019. 14
Academia
ACA Annual Conference 2022 Held Successfully
On December 2, 2022, the Annual Asia Competition Association ("ACA") Conference 2022 was successfully held online with the participation of senior officials from competition enforcement authorities, experts, academics and lawyers from China (including Hong Kong), Japan and Korea. 15
Footnotes
1.http://snamr.shaanxi.gov.cn/info/1512/23306.htm
2.https://gzhd.samr.gov.cn:8443/robot/publicComments.html
3.https://www.samr.gov.cn/xw/zj/202212/t20221226_352396.html
4.http://amr.shandong.gov.cn/art/2022/12/21/art_76546_10302215.html?xxgkhide=1
5.https://www.samr.gov.cn/fldys/tzgg/xzcf/202212/t20221216_352286.html
6.http://www.szse.cn/disclosure/listed/bulletinDetail/index.html?799b2de5-de98-4c6b-97d5-999a71e05419=
7.http://static.cninfo.com.cn/finalpage/2022-12-13/1215332825.PDF
8.http://scjg.lsz.gov.cn/zfxxgk/lzyj/rdgz/202212/t20221202_2382098.html
9. https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/Y2e1aLEEQ8QEm3UXpiE94A?scene=25#wechat_redirect
10.https://www.chinacourt.org/article/detail/2022/12/id/7048860.shtml
11.https://www.samr.gov.cn/fldes/tzgg/ftj/202212/t20221226_352414.html
12. https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/tqQwTeH_-UP39hL57sPCFA?scene=25#wechat_redirect
13. https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/XUtYZjmB37ArM_ZCFrSrTA?scene=25#wechat_redirect
14.https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/zI4qnWhhx0he-CtiWOxXKw
15.https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/jDwefKs4tXh5Dt3tY2II_A
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