Clifford Chance
Antitrust in China and across the region: Quarterly Update April to June 2017
18 July 2017
Key points of interest include the following:
- Latest merger control statistics from China – 1 conditional clearance (Dow/DuPont) and 77 unconditional clearances, including Reckitt Benckiser's acquisition of Mead Johnson which was filed as a simple case and then refiled (and cleared) under the ordinary procedure (see p3 for details). There were also 6 failure to file decisions announced last quarter and reports that the Anti-Monopoly Commission was considering recommending an increase to the maximum fine MOFCOM can impose for failure to file.
- Enforcement activity in China remains fairly subdued – five decisions last quarter, two of them directed against public authorities ("administrative monopoly") and three others imposing modest fines in the property management, insurance and gas supply sectors.
- Outside China – lots going on. India dropped its requirement to file within 30 days; South Korea announced a modest increase in its filing thresholds and the prospect of imprisonment for the obstruction of an investigation; Indonesia approved a bill introducing a leniency regime; Vietnam issued a revised draft Competition Bill, proposing a single competition regulator, new filing thresholds and a leniency regime; and Australia announced a review of the financial services sector. In Japan, the JFTC has concluded that some LNG destination clauses restrict competition and in Hong Kong, the Competition Commission announced the appointment of its new CEO, ex-DOJ official, Brent Snyder who takes up his new post in September 2017.
