February 2011

By Xu Ping, Leading partner of King & Wood’s Corporate Group

On February 3, 2011, the General Office of the PRC State Council issued the Notice Regarding the Establishment of National Security Review Mechanism for Mergers and Acquisitions of Domestic Enterprises by Foreign Investors (“国务院办公厅关于建立外国投资者并购境内企业安全审查制度的通知”) (the "Notice"), which will take effect 30 days after its promulgation. The Notice represents another major step that the Chinese government has taken in recent years in the area of regulating mergers and acquisitions (M&A) of domestic companies by foreign investors in China.Continue Reading China Issues Rules on National Security Review for M&A Transactions

By Susan Ning, Chai Zhifeng and Yin Ranran

In November 2009, the Ministry of Commerce of China ("MOFCOM") issued the decision to clear the Panasonic/Sanyo deal with conditions, one of which is for Panasonic to divest its nickel-hydride car batteries business in Japan.  On February 9, 2011, the sale was sealed with Panasonic selling this business to Hunan Corun New Energy Co., Ltd. for about RMB 40 million.Continue Reading Issues to consider when divesting business in the context of a conditional clearance case

By Richard  Wigley of King & Wood’s Intellectual Property Group

As much as one may love to sit down with a nice hardcover book from one’s favorite author, those days are changing, like much else in our lives in the digital age. The transition from obtaining information via traditional books to digital readers is growing around the world. It is estimated by DisplaySearch that the number of digital readers in China had grown to "3 million in 2010, which [] account[ed] for 2% of the global market." 1 Aside from the current market leader globally, the Amazon Kindle, numerous Chinese manufacturers have also entered this marketplace with competing products, 2 including many "shanzhai" or imitation products. 3 It is indeed a market with promise, even more so when one considers that with over 400 million internet users in China4 and well over 200 million users in China accessing the internet via mobile phones,5 the means to access e-books via various devices will only continue to grow.Continue Reading China’s e-Book and Digital Reader Markets Grow, while Legal and Technological Protections of Copyright Provide a Welcome Assist

By Susan Ning and Huang Jing

Partly driven by the QQ-360 disputes (see our article entitled " The QQ / 360 Disputes – Who, What, Where, When and Preliminary Antitrust Analysis"), the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology  (MIIT) released the Interim Rules for Supervision and Management of Internet Information Service Market (Draft for Comment) (Draft Rules), on 12 January 2011.

The objective of the Draft Rules is to safeguard the competitive environment in relation to the internet information service industry, and to safeguard consumers’ interests. Broadly, the Draft Rules sets out the code of conduct for internet information service providers (IISP), and dispute resolution mechanisms. Continue Reading MIIT releases draft rules which govern antitrust issues

By Susan Ning and Liu Jia

Two and half years after the enactment of the Anti-Monopoly Law (AML), the anti-trust authorities in China (i.e. the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and the State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC)) issued detailed rules prohibiting abuse of dominance within their respective remit.Continue Reading Comparison of the NDRC rules and the SAIC rules on Abuse of Dominant