A year on from the consolidation of China’s competition regulatory functions into the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR), and just over a decade from the introduction of the Antimonopoly Law (AML), partners from King & Wood Mallesons’ China practice provide a structured guide to competition compliance in the country. Combining a deep understanding of the relevant statute and case law with insights only extensive practical experience can provide, the guide provides a comprehensive introduction to a relatively nebulous, but growing, area of Chinese law.
Specifically, the guide covers:
- Competition compliance programs
- what they are;
- their applicability; and
- the four stages of implementation – namely risk-identification, risk-assessment, risk-mitigation and review.
- Dealings with competitors – including:
- the arrangements to avoid;
- suggested precautions;
- cartel behaviour;
- avoiding sanctions; and
- exchanging information.
- Leniency
- the availability of leniency programs, particularly in relation to cartels;
- the effects of whistleblowing; and
- the status of new Draft Leniency Guidelines.
- Dealings with commercial partners – including:
- which vertical agreements are subject to enforcement and which are exempted;
- dominant market players and how dominance is determined;
- findings of abuse of dominance.
- Mergers and Acquisitions – including:
- whether competition authority approval is required;
- how long the approvals process normally takes;
- the effect of an approval; and
- the impact of a failure to file an approval application.
- Investigations and settlement – including:
- circumstances requiring separate legal representation;
- dealing with dawn raids;
- settlement mechanisms, considering there is no legislated settlement procedure;
- corporate monitorships;
- statements of facts;
- invoking legal privilege;
- confidentiality protection; the consequences of refusing to cooperate;
- infringement notification and limitation periods.
- Miscellaneous – including:
- the abuse of administrative power to eliminate or restrict competition;
- the overlap of the AML with other laws; and
- the circumstances in which each is usually engaged; and finally the outlook for possible future reforms.
To access the guide, please follow this link.
Image credit: The Bund – Shanghai, China by David Berkowitz / Flickr / CC2.0 / Remixed to B&W and resized