In a recent post on our sister blog, China Law Insight, Susan Ning, Kate Peng and Li Rui look at a proposal that would expand the current immunity program under section 15 of the Chinese Anti-Monopoly Law (AML) to provide a special immunity process in respect of inter-airline agreements to coordinate capacity, schedules, routes and revenue sharing without breaching section 13 of the AML.
As the authors note, the contemplated antitrust immunity application program is a significant step towards achieving certainty by aligning China’s processes with international practice.
In Australia, airlines have made regular use of the authorisation process under the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth). Most recently, the ACCC has issued a draft determination in respect of coordination between Virgin and Air New Zealand in respect of trans-Tasman routes, which we blogged about here.
In addition, the ACCC’s Authorisation Guidelines have recently been updated.
Read more about the Chinese proposal here.
Photo credit: kevin dooley / Foter / CC BY
