Authored by Ren Gulong (rengulong@anjielaw.com) at AnJie Law Firm
On October 11, 2014, The International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) announced that 18 major global banks have agreed to sign a new ISDA Resolution Stay Protocol (the “Protocol”). The Protocol has been developed in coordination with the Financial Stability Board to support cross-border resolution and reduce systemic risk.
Continue Reading New ISDA Protocol – Action to Facilitate Cross-Border Resolution Efforts
Authored by Arthur Dong (dongxiao@anjielaw.com) at AnJie Law Firm
The Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre (“HKIAC”) has recently revised its Model Arbitration Clause to include a choice of law provision.
"Any dispute, controversy, difference or claim arising out of or relating to this contract, including the existence, validity, interpretation, performance, breach or termination thereof or any dispute regarding non-contractual obligations arising out of or relating to it shall be referred to and finally resolved by arbitration administered by the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre (HKIAC) under the HKIAC Administered Arbitration Rules in force when the Notice of Arbitration is submitted.
The law of this arbitration clause shall be … (Hong Kong law).
The seat of arbitration shall be …(Hong Kong).
The number of arbitrators shall be … (one or three). The arbitration proceedings shall be conducted in …(insert language)."
It’s understood that this change is aimed at advancing the efficiency and to avoid unnecessary twists and turns of arbitration proceedings. From the perspective of a Chinese practitioner, this addition is a highly sophisticated development.
Authored by He Jing (hejing@anjielaw.com) at AnJie Law FIrm
On October 9, 2014, China’s Supreme People’s Court issued a new judicial interpretation regarding online infringement of personal rights. This judicial interpretation is intended to deal with the increasing problem of online defamation and unfair competition activities in China. The wide use of social media, such as microblogs and WeChat, has dramatically increased the risks of, and damages caused by, defamatory statements and illegal disclosures of privacy.
Continue Reading Supreme People’s Court issues rules on online infringement of personal rights
Concurrences Competition Law Journal, in partnership with the New York University School of Law, will hold its inaugural conference "Antitrust in Emerging and Developing Countries” on Friday, October 24, 2014, at the NYU campus. This one-day conference (8:30am to 6:30pm) brings together prestigious speakers from across the world. Leading lawyers, in-house consultant, and enterprises senior managers from emerging and developing countries like China, Brazil, Mexico, South Africa, among other jurisdictions will participate in the event.
Continue Reading Announcement for Concurrences Journal Event on Antitrust in Developing Countries
Authored by He Jing (hejing@anjielaw.com) at AnJie Law Firm
After an expedited legislative process over the last 9 months, China’s legislature passed a bill on August 31 announcing that three specialized IP courts will open up in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. Supreme People’s Court is in charge of the actual operational details and has vowed to have these courts up and running by the end of 2014. All the three specialized IP courts will be intermediate-level courts, meaning that they will handle many cases as the court of first instance and the decisions may be appealed to provincial-level higher people’s courts.
Continue Reading Analysis of the New Specialized Courts in China
Authored by Michael Gu (michaelgu@anjielaw.com) and Yu Shuitian at AnJie Law Firm
Introduction
On 11 September 2014, China’s three antitrust law enforcers held a joint press conference in defense of the recent antitrust probes into multinationals including Microsoft and Japanese auto parts and bearing manufacturers. Issues surrounding the probes came to light after U.S. and European trade groups including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the European Union Chamber of Commerce said PRC antitrust investigators were unfairly targeting foreign businesses. Director General Mr. Shang Ming of the Anti-Monopoly Bureau of Ministry of Commerce (“MOFCOM”), Director General Mr. Xu Kunlin of the Price Supervision and Anti-Monopoly Bureau of National Development and Reform Commission (“NDRC”) and Director General Ms. Ren Airong of AntiMonopoly and Anti-unfair Competition Enforcement Bureau of State Administration for Industry and Commerce (“SAIC”) attended the press conference. They spoke on their respective Anti-Monopoly Law (“AML”) enforcement positions and answered questions. In particular, they offered updates on the status of several high-profile cases, responded to criticism on selective law enforcement and lack of procedural fairness and transparency.
Authored by Dr. Zhan Hao (zhanhao@anjielaw.com) and Dr. Annie Xue at AnJie Law Firm
China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) handed down antitrust penalties totaling 1.24 billion yuan on 12 Japanese companies in the past August, including eight auto parts makers and four bearing manufacturers. This action came after a series of global crackdown on auto parts price cartels taking place in the U.S., the EU, Japan and Singapore, while reinforcing the trend of the Chinese antitrust authorities following their counterparts in other major antitrust regimes, especially the U.S. and the EU.
Continue Reading China’s Follow-on Public Antitrust Enforcement Intensifies
Authored by Michael Gu (michaelgu@anjielaw.com) and Shuitian Yu at AnJie Law Firm
Introduction
Less than 2 weeks after the record fine (USD 200 million) in the Japanese Auto Parts and Bearing Manufacturers case that shocked the auto parts industry [1], on 2 September 2014, the Chinese price monopoly regulator, NDRC released its decisions [2] to impose combined fines of RMB 110 million (USD 17.89 million) on 23 property insurance companies and a local trade association in Zhejiang province for their price fixing in relation to car insurance. Among the companies involved in the case, one company is fully exempted and two other are granted significant reduction of the fines. Investigations into the Zhejiang branches of other nine insurance companies were terminated because those nine companies had not fixed prices or reached monopoly agreements.
Authored by Dr. Zhan Hao (zhanhao@anjielaw.com) and Wu Shanshan from AnJie Law Firm
On August 14, 2014, State Council promulgated Several Guiding Opinions Regarding Accelerating the Development of Modern Insurance Services (“New Guideline”) based on the original version of Guiding Opinions [1] issued by State Council in June 15 2006. The New Guideline is deemed as the essential impetus to PRC insurance industry.
Continue Reading State Council Issues New Guideline To Accelerate Insurance Development
Authored by Michael Gu (michaelgu@anjielaw.com) at AnJie Law Firm
Within six years of implementation of China’s Anti-Monopoly Law, the China’s law enforcement agency responsible for supervising price monopoly, the National Development and Reform Commission ("NDRC"), continues to strengthen its law enforcement efforts with rounds of “antitrust storm” that swept across a number of industries and companies along with record fines. This is especially true since 2013, the NDRC has probed into number of high-profile penalty cases, including the LCD Panel case [1], Moutai and Wuliangye case [2], Baby Formula case [3], Shanghai Gold Jewelers case [4] and Spectacle Lenses case [5]. Meanwhile, the NDRC has also launched investigation into the US high-tech giants, InterDigital and Qualcomm. For InterDigital case, the investigation has been suspended [6]. As for Qualcomm case [7], Qualcomm has manifested their willingness to cooperate with the NDRC in its investigation and has submitted relevant commitment.
