Antitrust in China and across the region: Quarterly Update April to June 2016

Key points of interest include the following:

Merger control in China has remained steady – 93 cases were reviewed in Q2 2016 with all being unconditionally cleared, which is very similar to last year. A trend towards longer case acceptance periods caused by recent staff departures seems to be easing although MOFCOM remains understaffed in comparison to other major competition agencies. MOFCOM did however find time to issue a further three failure to file decisions, imposing fines totaling RMB 850,000 (USD 130,000) which continues an existing trend to focus more resources on this issue.
Outside China, the Philippines Competition Commission is looking to investigate its first big merger case under the country's new competition regime – the Globe/PLDT telecoms deal which was signed during the transitional stages of the new rules.
As regards enforcement - in China, the provincial counterparts of both NDRC and SAIC continue to issue enforcement decisions against domestic players across a range of different industries, focusing on abuse of dominance, RPM and horizontal price-fixing.

Clifford Chance