On April 25th, the Supreme Court issued Provisions On a Number of Issues Applicable to the Trial of Monopoly Civil Dispute Cases (the “Exposure Draft”) for public comments.
Totalling 20 articles, this Exposure Draft are based on the Anti-Monopoly Law (“AML”), the Civil Law, the Civil Procedure, the Contract Law, the Torts and other related laws. Primarily, the basic construction and detailed rules of the anti-monopoly civil procedure are summarised in the 4 parts below：
Introduction
The Unfair Competition Law, which was enacted in 1993, has been described as the constitution of the market economy. However, China’s rapid social and economic development has given rise to new forms of unfair competition that the legislature did not foresee. The law is now in the final stages of amendment; the State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC) has completed a revised draft and has submitted it to the Legislative Affairs Office of the State Council.
Information released by the SAIC suggests that the changes focus on:
Continue Reading Revised Unfair Competition Law responds to changing economy
On 22nd March 2011, the CIRC released a draft of the new Rules on Administration of Representative Offices of Foreign Insurance Related Institutions(“New Draft Rule”). This New Draft Rule shall replace the Rules on Administration of Representative Offices of Foreign Insurance Institutions (Baojianhuiling [2006]No.6) published on 1st September 2006 (“Rule of Baojianfa [2006] No.6”) and the Interpretations of the CIRC on Rules on Administration of Representative Offices of Foreign Insurance Institutions (Baojianfa [2008]No.101) published on 25th November 2008. Foreign insurance institutions should pay attention to this New Draft Rule because it significantly raised the threshold for foreign insurance institutions entering into Chinese insurance market.
China’s biggest encyclopaedia website, Hudong.com, has requested an anti-monopoly review of Baidu, the leading Chinese internet search engine. Hudong.com is asking the State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC) to fine Baidu a total of Rmb79 million.
Continue Reading Market dominance and the Internet: new industry, new rules?
This article is written by Kate Chan, the Senior Foreign Counsel of Grandall Legal Group with Contribution from Dr. Zhan Hao.
This article summarises the time limits that are relevant to the exercise of rights and defences by property insurers in claim-related disputes and in the claim process generally.
Continue Reading Time Limits in Property Insurance Litigation in the People’s Republic of China
On 24th February 2011, one of the world most influential legal services ranking organisation Chambers & Partner held its second Chambers China Awards in Beijing and Grandall Legal Group was awarded the Insurance Law Firm of the Year. The award which honours the work of law firms in China consists of 20 categories and 18 of which were practice specific. It has been a tremendous encouragement for the members of the Insurance Law Department to have received the same award for 2 consecutive years which reflects the excellent work and continuous effort of the Department. Dr Zhan Hao, the head of the Insurance Law Department and Executive Partner of Grandall (Beijing) received the award on behalf of the firm.
Recently, General Office of the State Council issued the Notice of Launching the Security Review System for Acquisitions of Domestic Enterprises by Foreign Investors (“the Notice”). The Notice will come into effect on March 5, 2011.
Recently, General Office of the State Council issued the Notice of Launching the Security Review System for Acquisitions of Domestic Enterprises by Foreign Investors (“the Notice”). The Notice will come into effect on March 5, 2011.
Security review system for acquisition of domestic enterprises by foreign investors (hereinafter referred to as "Security review") is neither created by China, nor meaning to deter foreign investment. A lot of developed countries have set up M&A Security review for many years to protect their own national security related interests. China already started Security review a few years ago, but it hasn’t yet released the formal regulations until now. The Security review system covers two sectors:
i) foreign investors’ acquisition of military industrial enterprises or military industry related supporting enterprises, enterprises located near key and sensitive military facilities, and other entities relating to national defense;
ii)foreign investors’ acquisition of key domestic enterprises in areas such as agriculture, energy and resources, infrastructure, transport, technology, assembly manufacturing, etc., whereby the foreign investors might acquire the actual controlling right thereof.
Continue Reading New Notice Strengthens National Security Review
Great news for Chinese insurance industry is from CIRC’s Chairman Mr. Wu Dingfu. In a recent press conference in January 2011, Mr Wu introduced the situation of the development of the Chinese insurance market, during his speech he said, in the last 5 years, the insurance premium income of the country has increased 24.2% per year on average and has reached 720.12 billion yuan, the income from investment has been over 6% per year on average. China has become the most important newly developing country for the insurance industry where the number of insurance companies had increased by 53 since 2005 and there are now a total of 146 insurance companies in China.
On November 29 2010 the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) promulgated one substantive regulation and one procedural regulation regarding pricerelated monopolies (for further details please see "NDRC issues new anti-monopoly pricing regulations"). To accompany these regulations, the State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC) issued the Regulation on Prohibiting Monopoly Agreements, the Regulation on Prohibiting Abuse of Market Dominance and the Regulation on Prohibiting Abuse of Executive Authority to Exclude and Limit Competition on December 1 2010.
Continue Reading SAIC regulations signal greater anti-monopoly enforcement
The end of 2010 leaves China’s anti-monopoly regulators with several matters to consider, resolve or improve. The anti-monopoly framework is still not well established and consumer rights issues have been badly neglected. End consumers remain at risk of manipulation by collusion between large enterprises, especially on price. Recently, an instant noodle company stopped providing its products because a supermarket chain objected to a price increase and a mobile telecommunications company, facing claims of unreasonable tariffs, refused to reveal the basis of its pricing structure.
The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) is in charge of price related monopoly agreements (ie, cartels), abuse of dominance and administrative monopoly issues. In comparison with the other two regulatory bodies – the Ministry of Commerce and the State Administration of Industry and Commerce (SAIC) – it remains severely understaffed. Moreover, price regulation is invariably a sensitive issue in China and often attracts criticism. The SAIC issued regulations on non-pricing-related monopoly agreements, abuse of dominance and administrative monopoly in May 2010 (for further details please see "New draft rules on monopoly agreements and abuse of dominant position"), but the NDRC has been slow to follow suit. As the world economy has started to emerge from the financial crisis, many Chinese and foreign economists have criticised distorted market prices and price mismatching in China, making the NDRC even more wary of taking action on anti-monopoly pricing issues.
Continue Reading NDRC issues new anti-monopoly pricing regulations
