Beijing’s anti-monopoly law finally begins to bite
October 8, 2013 Leave a comment
Beijing’s anti-monopoly law finally begins to bite
Staff Reporter
2013-10-08
China’s anti-monopoly law has been in place for five years, but its full impact has not been felt until recently, according to Guangzhou’s Southern Weekly. The government increased the number of fines issued to companies violating the law this year, breaking new records with the total fines rising from 144 million yuan (US$23.4 million) in January to 247 million yuan (US$40.2 million) in February. As of August, the rise stood at 670 million yuan (US$108.9 million), the paper said.Meanwhile, Beijing recently announced plans to fine foreign and joint venture automobile brands for anticompetitive behavior and price fixing. The anti-monopoly law will also be applied to the oil, telecom and banking industries, according to a government official.
An insider said that the law has only been implemented efficiently this year and it is due to several factors. For instance, three government agencies are responsible for the enforcement of the law: the Ministry of Commerce, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and the State Administration for Industry and Commerce. This has created overlapping jurisdictions as well as competition amongst the three law-enforcement agencies, the insider said.
The NCRC’s anti-monopoly law enforcement division began operations in the summer of 2011 and started exercising its power more aggressively at the beginning of this year. The number of tickets it has issued so far this year and the total value of the fines for violating the law have been higher than the total of all of the agencies in the past five years.
The anti-monopoly law has given enforcement agencies a free hand in investigating cases. However, since there is no transparency for this information in China, it is not known how the agencies have used their discretionary power in dealing with these cases.
On the other hand, even though law enforcement agencies can handle such cases at their discretion, the law has not provided rules for companies being investigated to allow them to apply for administrative reconsideration or to bring a criminal lawsuit. Meanwhile, law enforcement agencies have faced major challenges in investigating powerful public enterprises for anticompetitive behavior, the paper said.
About bambooinnovator
Bamboo Innovator 