China's Anti-Monopoly Law: The First Five Years

It probably goes without saying that anti-monopoly law and practice are of very recent vintage in China. In August 2008, 118 years after the Sherman Act and 50 years after the Treaty of Rome, China’s Anti-Monopoly Law (AML) came into effect. Since then the enforcement of the AML has seen significant progress as well as considerable challenges. This volume, comprised of 27 highly informative contributions by more than 40 government officials, academics, economists, in-house lawyers, and private practitioners, introduces novice practitioners to the complexities of antitrust law in China and provides new insight for those already working in the field. Generally following the structure of the text of the AML, topics and issues covered include the following:

• an overview of the first five years of AML implementation;
• the institutional framework for antitrust enforcement in China;
• monopoly agreements between market players;
• abuses of dominance committed by a single company;
• problems and potential solutions for information exchanges between competitors;
• the economics underlying retail price maintenance;
• refusals to deal;
• procedural and substantive practice of merger decisions;
• the application of merger control to joint ventures;
• ‘administrative monopolies’ and the tension between competition and industrial policies;
• ways to seek legal redress;
• litigation (both administrative and civil) and the role of the courts;
• international cooperation efforts made in relation to Chinese antitrust enforcers;
• the relationship between the AML and China’s anti-bribery rules;
• the treatment of vertical integration or cooperation; and
• how the AML rules apply to intellectual property rights.

Throughout the book there are analyses of major judgments with key conclusions to be drawn from them, as well as comparisons with corresponding judgments in other jurisdictions. This book is the first comprehensive analysis of the AML, and as such will be of inestimable value to business persons and in-house counsel, as well as to academics in Chinese law and competition law from a global perspective.