Mr. Cheng Liu is a partner at King and Wood Mallesons, based in Beijing, China. Cheng has more than 15 years working experience in antitrust and competition law since 2005. He regularly advises clients on Chinese antitrust and competition matters and has represented numerous multinational companies and Chinese companies in their merger filings at Chinese authority, including a number of high profile transactions. He provides advice on antitrust compliance for the clients’ business model, and delivers antitrust trainings. He also advises clients in dealing with antitrust investigations by the authorities. His experiences cover industries including internet, automobile, machinery, dairy, foods, chemical, energy, real estate, IT, trade, etc. Cheng has been recognized by many global media as one of the leading competition lawyers in China, including IFLR 1000 (2013-2018, 2021) as a leading competition lawyer (band 1) in China, Chambers, Global competition Review, and Asialaw Profiles. Cheng is an expert advisor for the ICC Commission on Competition and its special committee of the International Trade and State Aid, and has also been appointed as the competition law expert by Beijing Administration for Market Regulation and Hubei Province Administration for Market Regulation.
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This article has been nominated for the 2023 Antitrust Writing Awards. Click here to learn more about the Antitrust Writing Awards. On 22 November 2022, the State Administration for Market Regulation (“SAMR”) published the AntiUnfair Competition Law of the People’s Republic of China (Draft (...)
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On 24 June 2022, the National People's Congress, the top legislator of China, adopted the Amendments to the Anti-Monopoly Law (“Amendments”), which will become effective on 1 August 2022. This is the first time that China amended the Anti-Monopoly Law (“AML”) since it was promulgated in (...)
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2022 witnesses China’s antitrust law enter its 15th year. Since the effectiveness of the Anti-monopoly Law (“AML”) in 2008, China’s antitrust agencies have been fairly active to enforce the law. While respecting the international experiences in antitrust enforcement and embracing the global trends such as shifting focus on technology companies and digital economy, the Chinese regulators have not been shy to maintain their own gesture to continue to shape China as one of the most important antitrust regimes in the world. This article will highlight some key achievements and trends of China’s anti-competitive conducts enforcements, with review of relevant cases as illustrations.
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Key Changes and Impacts On October 23, 2021, the Standing Committee of the Chinese National People’s Congress (“NPC”) released the Draft Amendments (’Draft Amendments’) to Anti-Monopoly Law of the People’s Republic of China (“AML”) for public comments [1]. This is the second draft of (...)
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A few days ago, the State Administration for Market Regulation (“SAMR”) and Shanghai Administration for Market Regulation (“Shanghai AMR”) successively issued two administrative decisions punishing two Internet platform companies for engaging in “either-or choice” practices (a type of (...)
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On 19 December 2020, the National Development and Reform Commission (“NDRC”) and the Ministry of Commerce (“MOFCOM”) jointly released the “Measures for the Security Review of Foreign Investment (the “Measures”), which will become effective from 18 January 2021. The issuance of the Measures (...)
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In 2020, SAMR promulgated the Anti-monopoly Guidelines for Intellectual Property Rights, i.e. IP Guidelines, which provide a more detailed analytical framework for monopoly agreements and abuse of dominant market position involving intellectual property: Definition of relevant market: The IP (...)
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10 Highlights of the Antitrust Guidelines for Platform Economy* On 10 November, the Anti-Monopoly Bureau of the State Administration for Market Regulation (“SAMR”) issued the Antitrust Guidelines for the Platform Economic Industry (draft for comments) (“Platform Guidelines”). [1] The (...)
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On November 10, 2020, SAMR promulgated the Platform Guidelines, which demonstrates SAMR has prioritised increasing its regulation of the Internet industry. The Platform Guidelines pay particular attention to specific business models and possible antitrust behaviours in the platform economy. (...)
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This article has been nominated for the 2021 Antitrust Writing Awards. Click here to learn more about the Antitrust Writing Awards. On 10 November, the Anti-Monopoly Bureau of the State Administration for Market Regulation (“SAMR”) issued the Antitrust Guidelines for the Platform Economic (...)
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China’s IP Antitrust Guidelines Released to the Public* Preface Recently, the Anti-Monopoly Guidelines for the Intellectual Property (“IP Guidelines”) was published in the Collection of Antitrust Regulations and Guidelines in 2019 released by the Anti-Monopoly Bureau of the State (...)
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Antitrust litigations concerning intellectual property rights increased in 2020. Among notable cases, the case of eight KTV v. China Audio Video Copyright Association (“CAVCA”) for its abuse of dominance attracted particular attention. Background In this case, the plaintiffs of eight KTV (...)
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On 15 May 2020, the State Administration for Market Regulation (“SAMR”) in China conditionally approved ZF Friedrichshafen AG (“ZF”)’s acquisition of WABCO Holdings, Inc. (“WABCO”, ZF and WABCO collectively as the “Parties”) following a 180-day extended Phase 2 review. It is noteworthy that (...)
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Preamble On 20 April 2020, China’s State Administration for Market Regulation ("SAMR") formally accepted a filing for the Establishment of a Joint Venture between Shanghai Mingcha Zhegang Management Consulting Co., Ltd. (“SMZ”) and Huansheng Information Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. ("SMZ (...)
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China’s Auto Antitrust Guidelines Released to the Public* On 20 February 2020, in his annual review “Dedicated to Fair Competition and Serving Reform and Development – Overview of Antitrust Work in 2019”, Mr. Wu Zhenguo, the Director of the Anti-monopoly Bureau (“AMB”) of the State (...)
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In the past year, the enforcement of China’s Anti-Monopoly Law (“AML”) was characterised by continued activism and a number of new developments. In summary China consolidated the functions of previous three antitrust agencies, i.e. merger review under the Ministry of Commerce (“MOFCOM”), (...)
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Chinese State-owned enterprises (SOEs) acquiring businesses or entering into joint ventures with other parties may unexpectedly trigger an EU merger filing. This was clarified by the European Commission’s decision clearing the UK joint venture between China General Nuclear Power Corporation (...)
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Since the Anti-monopoly Law of the People’s Republic of China ("AML") came into effect, there has been much debate about the circumstances in which minimum resale price maintenance ("RPM") will constitute a vertical monopolistic agreement prohibited by Article 14 of the AML. In the debate, (...)
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For the past three years (2017–2020), it appears that conglomerate mergers were under more scrutiny in China than in the European Union (“EU”) or the United States (“U.S.”). This article mainly examines five mergers—namely, HP/Samsung, Essilor/Luxottica, KLA/Orbotech, Infineon/Cypress and (...)
