Susan Ning and Yin Ranran


On 3 June 2011, Mr. Shang Ming, Director General of MOFCOM’s Anti-Monopoly Bureau revealed the latest figures to do with merger control at the 7th International Symposium on Competition Law and Policy hosted by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

According to Mr. Shang, from 1 August 2008 (when the Anti-Monopoly Law was enacted) till the end of May 2011, the Anti-Monopoly Bureau of MOFCOM cleared 240 merger control filings, among which 233 (97%) were approved without conditions, 1 rejected, and 6 were approved with conditions.  [Note: On 2 June 2011, MOFCOM announced that a transaction between two Russian potash producers was cleared with conditions, bringing the conditional clearance figure from 6 to 7 (see our article entitled The Russian Potash Deal – first conditional clearance of 2011)].

During the Symposium, Mr Shang also said that amongst these 240 cases, 119 cases (about 50%) were cleared before or by the end of the Phase I review period (30 calendar days); and 117 cases (about 49%) were cleared before or by the end of the Phase II review period (90 calendar days).  Only 4 cases entered the extended Phase II review period (which spans for a maximum of an additional 60 calendar days).

Some Historic Data

  • By the end of June 2009, MOFCOM accepted 58 merger control filings, among which 46 were closed without conditions, 2 closed with conditions and 1 prohibited.
  • By the end of June 2010, MOFCOM accepted about 150 merger control filings, among which 120 were closed without conditions, 5 closed with conditions and 1 prohibited.