China: launch of enforcement campaign to tackle monopolistic behavior in areas closely impacting public life
The Shanghai antimonopoly authority recently announced that from February to December 2023, an enforcement campaign will be launched to tackle monopolistic behaviour in the areas closely impacting the daily life of the public, such as construction material, daily consumer goods, automotive, pharmaceutical, etc.
The announcement comes with the contemplated recovery of the economy after recent years' events and the surge of subsequent consumer complaints on monopoly issues. The particular monopolistic behaviours have been highlighted include unseasonably high prices, limited trading, tie-up sales, refusal of trading and sales with unreasonable conditions. The Shanghai antimonopoly authority has streamlined the case review process in order to increase the efficiency of the investigation. Meanwhile, abuse of the administrative power has also been addressed in the announcement in the area of utilities, education, transportation, insurance and public procurement sectors.
The announcement will send an alert to the businesses in these aforementioned sectors with a significant market position and we will watch closely for any enforcement outcomes of such announcement.
For more information, please contact Sven-Michael Werner and Serena Du.
