Antitrust Enforcement: China Ups the Ante

Dec 09, 2014

CPI Asia Column edited by Vanessa Zhang (Global Economics Group) presents:

Antitrust Enforcement: China Ups the Ante – Michael Han and David Boyle (Fangda Partners)¹

Introduction

Over the past year China’s antitrust authorities have come to the fore on the global antitrust stage with some notable decisions and investigations in the non-merger antitrust area. Many of these investigations, involving large multinational companies (MNCs), have invoked criticism from some in the international business community with allegations of discrimination against foreign companies. While MNCs at the centre of recent antitrust probes may feel aggrieved, as many companies do when faced with an antitrust investigation, there may be more substance to these investigations than simply discriminating against foreign companies. In this article we will elaborate on this further and provide some possible alternative explanations as to why foreign MNCs have been investigated of late. We will also compare the recent enforcement actions with other enforcement actions taken by the Chinese antitrust authorities against domestic companies – cases which have not grasped international headlines in the same way as investigations against MNCs in China.

While the Chinese authorities have shown that competition law compliance is now a real consideration for global companies doing business in China and have made great strides in terms of improving enforcement, there is still room for i