The Chinese National People’s Congress amends the national competition law Act, in the first update in fifteen years and includes a new grading system for merger control

On 24 June 2022, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress voted to enact the amendment to the Anti-Monopoly Law of the PRC (2022 AML), which will come into effect as of 1 August 2022. [1] It is the first time for the Chinese legislator to revise the AML since it was promulgated around 15 years ago. The 2022 AML introduces the classification and grade mechanism (CGM) to the review of concentrations of business operators. [2] More specifically, Articles 37 of the 2022 AML prescribes that “The anti-monopoly law enforcement agency affiliated with the State Council should improve the classification and grade mechanism to review concentrations of business operators, strengthen the review of concentrations of business operators concerning national economy and people’s livelihood