Stephen Harris

On May 25, 2010, the State Administration of Industry and Commerce ("SAIC") published for public comment three sets of draft rules. These address (1) "monopoly agreements," that is, anticompetitive agreements, (2) abuses of dominant market position, and (3) "administrative monopolies," (...)

On April 21, 2010, the Parliament of Malaysia approved two bills, the Competition Commission Bill 2010 and the Competition Bill 2010 (the Bills). When implemented, the Bills will establish the first comprehensive competition law and competition enforcement agency in Malaysia. The Competition (...)

China’s competition law enforcement authorities published their first decision against a price cartel on March 30, 2010, more than one and a half years after the Anti-Monopoly Law (AML) came into effect. This action against domestic rice noodle producers was reported by the National Development (...)

The Japanese government has proposed significant changes to the procedures for challenging orders issued for antitrust violations by the Japanese Fair Trade Commission (JFTC). The Cabinet submitted a bill of amendments to the Antimonopoly Act (AMA) to the House of Representatives (Shugiin) on (...)

On December 18, 2009, a Chinese court ruled in favor of Baidu, Inc. (“Baidu”), allegedly the largest Chinese search engine company, in a lawsuit filed by Tangshan Renren Information Service Company (“TRISC”), an online information platform. TRISC alleged that Baidu abused its dominant market (...)

Following the international trend towards criminalizing cartel offenses, the Australian Senate passed a bill on June 16 that amends the key antitrust law in Australia, the Trade Practices Act 1974, by introducing parallel civil and criminal sanctions on cartel conduct. The Trade Practices (...)

On June 5, 2009, the PRC State Administration of Industry and Commerce (« SAIC ») published two new sets of procedural rules to implement the Chinese Anti-Monopoly Law (« AML »). One set of rules deals with procedures for the investigation and handling of cases involving monopoly agreements and (...)

On June 3, 2009, the Japanese Diet passed a bill that will amend the Japanese Anti-Monopoly Act (“Amendments”) to impose larger surcharges (administrative fines) on companies engaged in cartels and certain types of unilateral conduct and increased prison sentences for individuals participating in (...)

On April 24, 2009, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) announced conditional approval of the proposed acquisition of Lucite International Group Limited by Mitsubishi Rayon Co., Ltd. This is the first MOFCOM decision requiring parties to divest a portion of their production capacity as a (...)

Today the Chinese Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) announced that it had denied antitrust approval of The Coca-Cola Company’s proposed acquisition of a famous Chinese Juice manufacturer, China Huiyuan Juice Group Limited («Huiyuan»). MOFCOM’s decision to block the Coke deal, after its conditional (...)

In an effort to aid the country’s recovery from economic crisis, the Chairman of the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) reportedly has announced that the KFTC may invoke its power to exempt certain cartels from the Korea antitrust laws, so long as the cartels do not engage in «direct price (...)

On December 22, 2008, the Shanghai No. 2 Intermediate Court announced the establishment of a new specialized combined panel of judges (called the "反垄断案件专项合议庭" in Chinese, and referred to below as the "Specialized AML Panel") dedicated to hearing AML lawsuits and related actions. The Specialized AML Panel (...)

On December 18, 2008, the primary competition law agency of Korea, the Korea Fair Trade Commission (« KFTC »), submitted to the President of Korea the KFTC’s business plan for 2009. Among other priorities, the KFTC stated that it plans to « strengthen enforcement against abuse of intellectual (...)

The China Ministry of Commerce (« MOFCOM »), which serves as the antitrust authority in charge of merger control under the new Anti-Monopoly Law (« AML »)[[ See Article 10 of the AML provides that the Anti-Monopoly Enforcement Authority ("AMEA"), designated by the State Council, is responsible for (...)

The State Council has published the long-awaited Regulation on Notification Thresholds for Concentrations of Undertakings (the « Regulation»). The new thresholds supplement the merger control rules under the Anti-Monopoly Law (« AML»), which contains no specific notification thresholds. The new (...)

As the countdown to the August 1, 2008, effective date of the new China Anti-Monopoly Law (« AML ») nears its final stages, the structure and allocation of enforcement responsibilities under the AML is becoming slightly more clear. I. Background The AML establishes a two-tier enforcement (...)

After 14 years of consultation, deliberation, and delays, China finally adopted a new Anti-Monopoly Law (« AML ») on August 30, 2007, which became effective on August 1, 2008. The first comprehensive antitrust law in China, it presents serious compliance challenges and risks for Chinese and (...)

China’s National People’s Congress (« NPC ») finally adopted a new Anti-Monopoly Law (« AML ») in August after more than 10 years of drafting. The law will take effect on August 1, 2008. I. Overview The new AML is a tremendous leap forward for China, bringing it squarely into the modern world of (...)