Concurrences in partnership with GW Law will hold the 7th annual Bill Kovacic Antitrust Salon on Monday, Sep 9, 2019 from 1 to 6 pm at Marvin Center, GWU in Washington, DC.

The keynote speeches will be delivered by FTC Commissioner Rohit Chopra (opening), and DOJ AAG Makan Delrahim (closing).

There will be three panels:

  • Panel 1: Mergers in Two-Sided Markets (featuring Uber counsel Greg McCurdy)
  • Panel 2: The Intersection of Big Data, Privacy, and Competition (featuring Andreas Mundt, President of German Bundeskartellamt which started the privacy case with Facebook this year)
  • Panel 3: Latin American Enforcers’ Roundtable…(featuring top antitrust officials from Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, and Chile)

You can see all confirmed speakers, and register for free on the dedicated website:

https://billkovacic7antitrustsalon.eventbrite.com

by Yu Dan, Dong Xin

For foreign investors, who are eager for an admission ticket into the Chinese insurance market, obtaining an insurance intermediary license in China would be one of the considerable options.

A Chinese insurance agency company, as an investable target, undoubtedly has a great attraction to foreign investors. Comparing with insurance brokerage license, it is more difficult for foreign investor to get an insurance agency license in China. In practice, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (the “CBIRC”) has classified as foreign-invested insurance agency companies for those companies with the total foreign shareholding ratio of more than 25%. Therefore, for those foreign investors, who prefer to hold control over a Chinese insurance agency, it is logical to consider either way of setting up a new foreign-invested insurance agency company or acquiring an existing foreign-invested agency company. This article is aimed to give a brief introduce on the current situation of foreign-invested insurance agencies in China.

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Authored by Yu Dan <yudan@anjielaw.com> , Dong Xin <dongxin@anjielaw.com> at  AnJie Law Firm

It is often puzzling and difficult for foreign reinsurers to navigate through Chinese legal frameworks on reinsurance contracts, especially since there are relatively fewer regulations to offer guidance on reinsurance contracts compared to the extensive regulations on direct insurance.

Moreover, since the reinsurance business often involves small groups of close acquaintances, it is often the case that the parties neglect the wording of reinsurance contracts.

During the past five years, the Chinese courts and arbitration institutions handled massive disputes related to reinsurance contracts.

Those cases facilitated legislation in the reinsurance sector and aroused attention towards more careful wording of reinsurance contracts.

Based on our practice and experience, we list several essential provisions of reinsurance contracts under PRC law as follows.

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Authored by Zhan Hao <zhanhao@anjielaw.com> , Zhou Yanghui <zhouyanghui@anjielaw.com>, Zhou Liumin<zhouliumin@anjielaw.com> at  AnJie Law Firm

                                                                                                                                      Yang Zhan
On May 31, 2019, the Ministry of Commerce of China (“MOFCOM”) announced that China will establish an “Unreliable Entity List” (“UEL”) targeting on foreign entities and individuals that fail to comply with the principles of market economy, deviate from the contractual spirit, or cut off supplies to Chinese companies for non-commercial purposes, as well as that threaten the China national security or seriously damage the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies.

Later on, on June 1, 2019, Mr. Wang Hejun, the Director General of the Treaty & Law Department of MOFCOM, further disclosed some key messages explaining the UEL and stated that more specific restrictions and measures will be promulgated in due course.

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Authored by Yang Zhan <yangzhan@anjielaw.com> at  AnJie Law Firm

Zhan Hao  Zhou Yanghui  Liao Lilin

On 8 April 2018, China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC) was formally unveiled in Beijing, marking the official launch of the new regulatory authority into operation. This merger of the former China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) and the former China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC) is considered the biggest reform of China’s financial regulatory system in over fifteen years, bringing an end to the “One Bank, Three Commissions” (一行三会) regulation framework, and marking the start of the “One Committee, One Bank, Two Commissions” (一委一行两会) regulation framework (referring to the Financial Stability and Development Committee, PBOC, CBIRC and CSRC). Since then, Chinese insurance market has the new regulator. This huge change has not been completed because it not only brought the reorganization to CBRC and CIRC, but also to the local bureaus (branches) of CBRC and CIRC, and the latter should cost more time.

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Authored by Zhan Hao <zhanhao@anjielaw.com> , Zhou Yanghui <zhouyanghui@anjielaw.com>, Liao Lilin<liaolilin@anjielaw.com> at  AnJie Law Firm

ZHOU Yanghui,Yu Dan,Chen Jun

The Opening-up of the PRC insurance market has been accelerated during the recent two years.

Since the release of the Notice of the State Council on Several Measures for Opening Wider to the Outside World and Making Active Use of Foreign Investment on January 1st, 2017, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (“CBIRC”, including the former China Insurance Regulatory Commission (“CIRC”)) has issued several provisions and guidance to further attract foreign investors to enter PRC insurance market. Relevant regulations include the Notice of the CBIRC on Liberalizing the Business Scope of Foreign-invested Insurance Brokerage Companies, Notice of the CBIRC on Allowing Overseas Investors to Operate.

Insurance Adjuster Business in China, Notice of the CBIRC on Allowing Overseas Investors to Operate Insurance Agent Business in China, etc.

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Authored by Zhou Yanghui <zhouyanghui@anjielaw.com> , Yu Dan <yudan@anjielaw.com>, Chen Jun <chenjun@anjielaw.com> at  AnJie Law Firm

Zhan Hao, Song Ying, Stephanie Wu, Lv Hongjie

China’s competition watchdog SAMR made a penalty decision, adopted by its Shanghai branch Shanghai Market Regulation Bureau (“SMRB”), publicized on its official website[1] on April 29, 2019, right before the International Labor Day holiday. This decision is addressed to Eastman (China) Investment Management Co., Ltd. (“Eastman China”), a Chinese subsidiary of the US Chemical firm Eastman Chemical Company, for restricting transactions by abusing its dominant market position. The fine amount is equal to 5% of Eastman China’s 2016 sales revenue, roughly USD 3.6 million.

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Authored by Zhan Hao <zhanhao@anjielaw.com> , Song Ying <songying@anjielaw.com>, Wu Yuanyuan <wuyuanyuan@anjielaw.com> , Lv Hongjie <lvhongjie@anjielaw.com>at  AnJie Law Firm

He Jing/Jerry Xia

On March 18, 2019, China announced amendments of its joint venture law and the Regulations on Administration of Technology Import and Export (TIER) with immediate effect. The changes in nature took away some of the restrictions around cross border technology transfers, delivering more freedom of contract for future transactions. The announcement has attracted lots of attention from around the world as the rules are directly related to some of the claims in the US China trade disputes. The changes may turn out to be beneficial to both Chinese and foreign companies in the long run. We highlight the background and key changes below.

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Authored by He Jing <hejing@anjielaw.com> , Jerry Xia <Jerryxia@anjielaw.com>

Bo Hu, Partner

On March 15, 2019, China’s national legislature, the National People’s Congress passed the Foreign Investment Law (the “Law”), a landmark legislation that will provide stronger protection and a better business environment for foreign investors. The Law will take effective on January 1,2020.

Upon its effectiveness, the Law will replace China’s current foreign investment regimes, i.e, the existing three laws on Chinese-foreign equity joint venture, the Chinese-foreign contractual joint venture and wholly foreign-owned enterprises, which were promulgated in the early years after the country started to implement the reform and opening policy.

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Authored by Hu Bo <hubo@anjielaw.com>

Zhan Hao, Song Ying and Wu Yuanyuan

Against the backdrop of China-US trade friction, the event that Qualcomm/NXP deal’s abortion due to the holding of China’s antitrust authority to give the green light, has raised most attention and interest ever from people on China’s merger review practice, particularly on situations when it comes to chips industry. This article is not intended to comment on the potential political influence or industry concerns behind this event, which has been masticated in a bunch of articles and media report. The authors would rather to comb and comment on those major cases of chip industry approved by the former Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) and the current State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) with imposition of remedies so far, to the end to help readers have a better understanding of the merger review practice in China of this industry.

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Authored by Zhan Hao <zhanhao@anjielaw.com> , Song Ying <songying@anjielaw.com>, Wu Yuanyuan <wuyuanyuan@anjielaw.com> at  AnJie Law Firm