By: Susan Ning, Shan Lining and Angie Ng.
On 17 November 2010, the NDRC organized a “price monopoly” workshop in Chengdu.[1] Government officials from some 15 provincial level price authorities attended this workshop.Continue Reading Provincial Price Authorities and the AML
By: Susan Ning, Shan Lining and Angie Ng.
On 12 November 2010, Professor Huang Yong (University of International Business and Economics) gave some comments to the media1 on the QQ-360 disputes (see our previous article entitled “The QQ/360 disputes”).
Professor Huang made the point that industries like the technology and internet services industries develop and change so quickly that by the time either party (i.e. QQ or 360) or a third party brings a claim (pursuant to the Anti Unfair Competition Law (AUCL)) to the courts and receives remedies (e.g. damages), the industry might have changed so much that either one or both of these parties might have been “driven” out of the industry. By contrast, in his comments, Professor Huang spoke about “public enforcement” being a more “efficient” route of enforcing the AUCL.Continue Reading Private vs public enforcement pursuant to the Anti-Unfair Competition Law and Anti-Monopoly Law
By: Susan Ning, Ding Liang and Angie Ng.
Recently, the disputes between Tencent’s QQ and Qihoo’s 360 software have caused quite a stir in the press (see our article entitled “QQ vs 360 – an anti unfair competition case”.
We set out the “whos”, “whats”, “where” and “when” or the background to these disputes. We also provide our preliminary views or analysis re these disputes vis-à-vis the Anti Unfair Competition Law (AUCL) and the Anti-Monopoly Law (AML).Continue Reading The QQ / 360 Disputes – Who, What, Where, When and Preliminary Antitrust Analysis
By: Susan Ning and Shan Lining.
On 30 October 2010, it was reported in the press1 that the People’s Court has thus far accepted 11 antitrust cases (for the period 1 August 2008 to June 2010). Out of these 11 cases, 10 were antitrust civil cases (see our previous article entitled Two Years on, Ten Antitrust Private Actions) and 1 was an antitrust administrative action.Continue Reading 11 Private Antitrust Cases Lodged; Judicial Interpretations Coming Up
By: Susan Ning and Liu Jia.
On 3 November 2010, it was reported in the press1 that the Changsha Yuelu District People’s Court (in Hunan province) accepted the court’s first private antitrust claim. The antitrust claim was formally accepted by the court 1 November 2010 and is an abuse of dominance case.Continue Reading Hunan Province’s First Private Antitrust Case
By Susan Ning, Ding Liang and Angie Ng, King & Wood’s Competition Practice.
In late August 2010, it was reported in the press that at least 10 antitrust private actions have been heard in the courts in China (see Two years on, ten private antitrust action
This article describes one of the cases, Zhou Ze v. China Mobile Beijing (the Zhou Ze case), in detail. This was an alleged abuse of dominance case – which was later settled.Continue Reading Zhou Ze v. China Mobile Beijing – Alleged Abuse of Dominance Case
By Susan Ning, Shan Lining and Angie Ng, King & Wood’s Competition Practice.
On 26 October, a couple of Chinese airlines, including Air China, China Eastern Airlines, Shandong Airlines, Xiamen Airlines, Hainan Airlines, Capital Airlines and Shenzhen Airlines announced, separately, that they were going to raise passenger fuel surcharges for domestic flights.(1)
By Susan Ning, Huang Jing and Angie Ng, King & Wood’s Competition Group
On 14 October 2010, the PRC National Copyright Administration (NCAC) published two pieces of regulations (the regulations) which govern the collection of copyright royalties for movies provided on the Internet, on flights and on public transport.(1) Recently there have been concerns from internet cafes that these royalties are unreasonably high.(2) There has also been some discussion in the press that these alleged “high” royalties could constitute an abuse of intellectual property rights, in breach of Article 55 of the Anti-Monopoly Law (AML).(3)Continue Reading Domestic Movie Royalties – Too High?
By Susan Ning and Shan Lining, King & Wood’s Competition Group
On 14 October 2010, Tencent Technology (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd (Tencent) launched an action against Beijing Qihoo Technology Co., Ltd (Qihoo) alleging that the latter has breached Article 14 of the Anti-Unfair Competition Law(1). Article 14 of the Anti-Unfair Competition Law prohibits entities from fabricating or spreading false facts, resulting in damaging the business reputation of a competing entityContinue Reading QQ vs 360 – An Anti-unfair Competition Case
By Susan Ning, Huang Jing and Angie Ng, King & Wood’s Competition Practice
We understand that the SAIC is currently working on draft guidelines (the guidelines) which will shed light on how Article 55 of the Anti-Monopoly Law (AML) will be enforced. It has been reported in the press that the SAIC has published a 4th draft of these guidelines and are currently consulting with the relevant stakeholders (we understand that these drafts are not publicly available). Continue Reading IP rights and Antitrust – Awaiting Guidelines (and the Tsum-Sony Case)