Authored by Dr.  Zhan Hao (zhanhao@anjielaw.com) and Moon Wang (wanglingling@anjielaw.com) at Anjie Law Firm

Event

On 23 April, 2015, the Jiangsu Price Bureau, which is the provincial branch of the NDRC, announced the punishment on its website and stated that it had imposed a fine of CNY 350 million (USD 56.49 million) on German premium car maker Mercedes-Benz, along with a combined CNY 7.87 million (USD 1.27 million) fine on its dealers. The fine came as a result of Mercedes-Benz reaching and implementing resale price maintenance (“RPM”) agreements to fix the minimum prices of Class E and Class S cars, as well as certain auto parts. The announcement (“announcement”) was published without much detail of relevant facts, the reasons for the fine calculations, or definitions of the relevant markets.  
 
Later on 22 May, 2015, the Jiangsu Price Bureau published a full administrative penalty decision imposed against Mercedes-Benz and several of its dealers in Jiangsu province for the price monopoly. The punishment decision was dated 20 April, 2015 and shed light on the facts and reasons behind the penalty decision.