Clifford Chance

ANTITRUST IN CHINA AND ACROSS THE REGION

19 July 2022

QUARTERLY UPDATE
April to June 2022

On 24 June 2022, China passed amendments to its Anti-Monopoly Law (AML), these being the first since the law was enacted in 2008. The amended AML will come into force on 1 August 2022. On 27 June 2022, the Chinese antitrust authority (SAMR) followed up by publishing draft amendments to six sets of antitrust regulations and rules for the purposes of implementing the amended AML and providing much-needed clarification to it. Key changes introduced to the amended AML include, among others: (i) a considerably strengthened penalty regime, in particular a 10 times higher failure-to-file and gun-jumping fine, a new personal fine in anti-competitive agreements and a punitive fine of 2-5 times higher in extreme circumstances; (ii) a stop-the-clock procedure in SAMR's merger control review； (iii) SAMR's extended jurisdiction over below-filing thresholds transactions; (iv) a safe harbour rule for vertical agreements in general; and (v) a more relaxed approach to resale price maintenance.

Outside China, the region has seen not able enforcements against cartel conduct in this quarter–the Competition Commission in Hong Kong (HKCC) brought before the Tribunal a five-year-long bid-rigging case in the air conditioning contracting sector; Taiwan fined 15 air conditioning firms for colluding to set warranty terms; and Australia saw its first-ever criminal cartel case in which sentences of imprisonment were imposed on responsible individuals. Apart from this, in Australia, a patent settlement and licence agreement regarding cancer treatment pharmaceuticals was denied authorisation in a draft decision due to unclear public benefits.

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