China NDRC will extend probes into price fixing in sectors including airlines, daily consumer goods, vehicles, telecoms, pharmaceuticals, and household appliances
November 25, 2013 Leave a comment
China to Target Airlines, Consumer Goods, Auto, Telecom in Price-Fixing Probes: Xinhua
11-25 10:24 Caijing
An NDRC offical said “China has paid high attention to anti-price-fixing.”
China’s top economic planner and price watchdog will extend its anti-trust probes into six other major industries, Xinhua reported.
The National Development and Reform Commission will extend probes into price fixing in sectors including airlines, daily consumer goods, vehicles, telecoms, pharmaceuticals, and household appliances in the next step, the state-run media quoted an official as saying.
China has played strong hands so far this year in cracking down on illegal activities including price fixing, targeting baby formula brands, drug makers, jeweler distributors and others.
Earlier this year, the NDRC fined six liquid crystal display manufacturers a total of 353 million yuan for their participation in a cartel to fix the price of LCD panels on the Chinese mainland between 2001 and 2006. This was the first time for China to punish foreign companies in China for price fixing.
In October, the regulator delivered a combined fine of 670 million yuan to six baby formula brands, both home and abroad, for their role in limiting competition.
“China has paid high attention to anti-price-fixing,” said Lu Yanchun, the Deputy Inspector of the NDRC Price Supervision and Anti-Monopoly Bureau. He added there is basically an anti-fix pricing enforcement regime now across the country, centered at the central and provincial level.
Lu told Xinhua that the array of probes did not specifically target a certain kind of companies. Under the scrutiny, there were both SOEs and private firms, and domestic and foreign companies, in a wide range of sectors, Lu said.
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