China Law Vision : China Insurance & Anti-Trust Lawyer : Dr. Zhan Hao : Grandall Legal Group : Anti-Monopoly & Competition Law : China Law Vision Blog

Introduction

The Ministry of Commerce's Anti-monopoly Bureau approved Novartis's acquisition of Alcon on August 13 2010, subject to conditions.(1) The ministry accepted the filing in respect of the acquisition on April 20 2010 and decided on May 17 2010 that a further review period was needed. The ministry reviewed information on:

• the overlap of the two companies' products in the Chinese and global markets;
• their respective market shares;
• the characteristics, applications, prices and sales methods of their products;
• the supervisory policies in the relevant market; and
• the two companies' relationships with competitors in the market.

Opinions were sought from other companies in the field. After negotiating with the filing parties, consensus was reached on how to reduce the acquisition's undesirable effects on competition in the relevant markets.

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On August 12th 2010, the Ministry of Commerce held a press conference regarding the development of the antimonopoly practice in China.  The Chief of the Antimonopoly Bureau, Mr. Shang Ming, answered questions raised by the journalists.  For the first time in 2 years since the China Anti-Monopoly Law (“AML”) came into effect that some of the most controversial questions were clarified directly by the official from the enforcement institution.

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On July 9, China Insurance Regulatory Commission (“CIRC”) issued a notice concerning assumed interest rate on traditional life insurance to solicit public opinion. Some analysts said CIRC proposes to loosen its control over the assumed interest rate through this notice and expected that the profits margins of traditional life products will shrink following the implementation of this proposal, while insurers will have more flexibility in the design of this kind of policies.

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