The State Administration for Market Regulation announces that the antitrust review of concentration of undertakings will be conducted online due to the coronavirus outbreak.
The State Administration for Market Regulation issues an administrative penalty decision concerning monopoly agreement (杭州市混凝土垄断协议案行政处罚决定书).
The State Administration for Market Regulation suspends a probe of a music entertainment company’s dealings with the world’s three largest record labels.
The European Union is investigating whether Qualcomm engaged in anti-competitive behavior.
Japan's antitrust watchdog searches Rakuten office over its free shipping policy.
The State Administration for Market Regulation issues the Guiding Opinions on the Audiovisual Recording of Law Enforcement by the Administration for Market Regulation (Tentative) (Draft for comment) (hereinafter, the “Guiding Opinions”), aiming to regulate law enforcement actions, protect legitimate rights of interested persons, and ensure the safety of enforcement officers in performing duties. Audiovisual recording of law enforcement includes synchronized recording of the entire process of law enforcement activities with the professional recording equipment, and the collection, management, and use of the audiovisual records. The Guiding Opinions were issued on February 4, 2020 and the State Administration for Market Regulation sought public comments to the Guiding Opinions until February 14, 2020. Visit the link below for more information (available in Chinese only): http://www.samr.gov.cn/hd/zjdc/202002/t20200204_310982.html The State Administration for Market Regulation issues the Announcements on Adjustment of Reception and Work Modes during Infection Prevention and Control of Epidemic (hereinafter, the “Announcements”), announcing that merger review will be conducted off-site due to the coronavirus outbreak. Applicants shall, through online submission, email to the Anti-monopoly Bureau (fldj@samr.gov.cn) a copy of materials and reply to supplementary questions; if online application is not feasible, the materials shall be mailed to the Anti-monopoly Bureau; the notification of acceptance, the list of supplementary documents, the notification of filing, and other review decisions will be delivered through the contact person’s email address or fax provided in the materials. The Announcements were issued on February 6, 2020. Visit the link below for more information (available in Chinese only):http://www.samr.gov.cn/fldj/sjdt/gzdt/202002/t20200206_311111.htmlThe State Administration for Market Regulation, the National Medical Products Administration and the National Intellectual Property Administration jointly issue the Ten Measures to Support Resumption of Work and Production (hereinafter, the “Document”). The Document states that “to facilitate mergers and acquisitions, online application is encouraged for merger review, so as to improve the efficiency of cases qualified for expedited review, and ensure the smooth process of mergers and acquisitions. It is critical to optimize the operating mechanism for merger review, and strengthen guidance and services for enterprise competition compliance.” The Document was issued on February 17, 2020. Visit the link below for more information (available in Chinese only):http://www.sipo.gov.cn/gztz/1146069.htm
The State Administration for Market Regulation issues an administrative penalty decision concerning monopoly agreement (杭州市混凝土垄断协议案行政处罚决定书). (1) 11 concrete production companies in Hangzhou jointly set up a third-party company A to engage in the concrete supply business at a uniform price and then “refer” to each of the 11 companies. Companies involved must turn over all the profits as shared funds, which will be distributed on a pro rata basis at the end of the year, and an additional RMB500,000 as a surety for breach of the agreement. (2) 11 concrete production companies in Hangzhou (some of which overlap with the aforementioned 11 companies) jointly set up a third-party company B, using monitoring software to monitor the output of participating companies, and limiting the output of each company by imposing excessive fees. The above actions constituted “fixing or altering product prices”, “fixing the minimum resale price to a third party” and “dividing sales market or procurement market of raw materials”, thus violating Article 14 of the PRC Anti-monopoly Law. The administration for market regulation of Zhejiang province imposed fines on 12 companies of RMB 100,000, RMB 350,000, or RMB 450,000 respectively depending on the severity of violation, and exempted 1 company from punishment. The decision was issued on February 7, 2020. Visit the link below for more information (available in Chinese only)：
http://www.samr.gov.cn/fldj/tzgg/xzcf/202002/t20200207_311212.html
The State Administration for Market Regulation, during January 20, 2020 and February 20, 2020, issued a public notice on 25 cases qualified for expedited review and unconditionally approved 34 cases. No merger was prohibited cases during this period.
China’s antitrust authority has suspended a probe into a music entertainment company’s dealings with the world’s three largest record labels including Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music and Warner Music. The State Administration of Market Regulation told the company as well as other record labels, in January 2020 that it had suspended the probe. As reported, the antitrust probe was suspended without any commitments or conditions.[1] V. Foreign Antitrust Trends
Turkey’s competition authority fined Google 98.35 million lira ($16.26 million) on February 14, 2020 for abusing its dominant market position and forced it to remove its Shopping product boxes from the top of its search results. The competition investigation included companies Google Reklamcilik ve Pazarlama, Google International LLC, Google LLC, Google Ireland Limited and Alphabet Inc., it said. Google said it would appeal the decision.[2] The European Union is investigating whether Qualcomm engaged in anti-competitive behavior by leveraging its market position in 5G modem chips in the radio frequency chip market. Qualcomm has been trying to persuade phone makers to buy its radio frequency chips, together with its own modem chips, rather than selecting parts from separate vendors and integrating them. Qualcomm said the commission could impose a fine of up to 10% of its annual revenue if a violation were found.[3] Takeaway.com and Just Eat have delayed plans to list their combined company on the London Stock Exchange by one week after UK competition authorities launched a last-minute investigation into their £6 billion merger. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA)’s probe, which was announced on January 23, follows a months-long review of Amazon’s planned minority stake in Deliveroo, Just Eat’s biggest British rival. The regulator is assessing whether the deals would prevent a new entrant breaking into the food delivery market in the UK, and has invited interested parties to comment by February 6.[4] Japan's antitrust watchdog searches Rakuten office over its free shipping policy. The Fair Trade Commission in January 2020 launched an investigation on suspicion the e-commerce giant is breaching the anti-monopoly law by abusing the company’s dominant position in relation to smaller online retailers that depend on its platform. Before, a group of around 450 merchants filed a petition to the commission claiming that Rakuten is forcing them to bear the costs of shipping for all orders exceeding ¥3,980 starting March 18.[5] The European Commission has fined NBCUniversal LLC, €14,327,000 for restricting traders from selling licensed merchandise within the European Economic Area (EEA) to territories and customers beyond those allocated to them. These restrictions concerned merchandise products featuring the Minions, Jurassic World and other images and characters from NBCUniversal's films. Moreover, NBCUniversal's illegal practices were in force for more than 6.5 years (from January 1, 2013 to September 25, 2019).[6] Morocco’s state telecoms regulator (ANRT) has fined Maroc Telecom MAD 3.3 billion ($339.72 million) for anti-competitive practices in “the implementation of local-loop unbundling.” Local-loop unbundling is a regulatory process by which telecommunication companies are committed to providing services and telecommunication elements to any requesting telecom company, such as providing access to underground telecommunications infrastructure. ANRT said that Maroc Telecom abused its dominant position in the market by delaying and impeding competitors’ access to unbundling on its network and the fixed market.[7] 【Endnote】
[1] Reported by Bloomberg on February 6, 2020. URL: https://news.bloomberglaw.com/mergers-and-antitrust/tencent-music-antitrust-probe-suspended-by-chinese-authorities
[2] Reported by Reuters on February 14, 2020 (URL: https://in.reuters.com/article/turkey-google/turkish-competition-board-fines-google-16-3-mln-idUSI7N2A600X) and Global Competition Review on February 17, 2020 (URL: https://globalcompetitionreview.com/article/1214629/google-to-appeal-against-turkey%E2%80%99s-shopping-decision).[3] Reported by Reuters on February 6, 2020. URL: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-qualcomm-eu/eu-investigates-qualcomm-over-radio-frequency-chips-idUSKBN1ZZ338 [4] Reported by Financial Times on January 24, 2020. URL: https://www.ft.com/content/8c87ff1c-3e78-11ea-a01a-bae547046735 [5] Reported by Japan Times on February 10, 2020. URL: https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2020/02/10/business/antitrust-watchdog-searches-rakuten-free-shipping-policy/#.Xke7h2gzY2w [6] Reported by the European Commission on January 30, 2020. URL: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/MT/ip_20_157 [7] Reported by Reuters on February 6, 2020 (URL: https://www.reuters.com/article/morocco-telecom/regulator-slaps-375-mln-antitrust-fine-on-maroc-telecom-reports-idUSL8N2A20LD) and Morocco World News on February 17, 2020 (URL: https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2020/02/293870/maroc-telecoms-profits-reaches-620-million-in-2019-up-by-1/).
About Llinks’s Antitrust Compliance Services
To meet clients’ ever-growing needs in antitrust compliance, Llinks assembled a team consisting of experienced antitrust compliance experts. The antitrust compliance team is comprised of former general counsels and compliance heads of fortune 500 companies and other leading Chinese companies, former law enforcement officers as well as transaction and litigation lawyers specialized in antitrust compliance in relation to sectors under stringent antitrust compliance regulatory framework, such as drugs and health, automobiles and auto parts, energy and chemicals, and finance and insurance.
Llinks team is capable of utilizing its profound knowledge and experience in serving all kinds of antitrust compliance needs of clients, including monopoly agreements, compliance of companies with dominant position, and merger filings. Based on its deep understanding of antitrust laws and clients’ industries, Llinks team is well capable of advising clients on antitrust issues, assisting clients to establish internal antitrust compliance system, providing highly efficient merger filing services, and assisting clients to respond to administrative dawn raids.
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Top Ten Firms in China’s Power List by Asian Legal Business (2015, 2016)
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