During the drafting of the Chinese Anti-monopoly Law (AML), the level at which the threshold of concentration notification was to be set, aroused fierce debate. In the end however, AML did not specifically stipulate the notification criteria in detail.Article 21 of AML states:
Business operators shall declare in advance the concentration reaching the threshold of declaration prescribed by the State Council to the Anti-monopoly Law Enforcement Agency, otherwise, they shall not implement the concentration.
Such a vaguely worded clause has caused confusion within the legal profession. It certainly begs the question: Why did AML not explicitly stipulate the threshold of notification? Examining both the lawmaking process prior to the creation of AML as well as the drafting of AML itself may prove to be helpful.
Continue Reading The Threshold of Concentration: Anti-monopoly Notification in China