The Antimonopoly Law in China: Where Do We Stand?

Vanessa Yanhua Zhang, Xinzhu Zhang, Nov 05, 2007

The recent development of China´s Antimonopoly Law has caught the attention of governments, academia, and businesses. Although China has laws that address anticompetitive conduct and institutions to enforce them, they are disparate and do not constitute a comprehensive competition regime. Recent antitrust cases in China have stressed the need for a competition law that can be applied consistently across sectors. In this paper, the authors explain China´s legislative process, the relationships among its relevant institutions, and explore the problems and challenges facing lawmakers. Although the 2007 passage of the Antimonopoly Law was an important step towards a comprehensive competition regime, it remains to be seen how it will operate in practice when it goes into effect on August 1, 2008. The authors argue that two key issues remain unresolved: 1) how the Antimonopoly Law will be backed by an effective enforcement process; and 2) how the Antimonopoly Law will effectively deal with administrative monopolies.