完善的金融监管机制是遏制金融犯罪的有效手段,强大的金融监管框架是对金融犯罪最有效的威慑之一。反洗钱(Anti-Money Laundering(AML))、打击恐怖主义融资(Combating the Financing of Terrorism(CFT))和客户尽调(Know-Your-Customer(KYC))已成为当前金融机构监管的重点领域。
Continue Reading 美国金融监管之反洗钱、打击恐怖主义融资及客户尽职调查规则
FATF Plenary: 8 things you should know
By Urszula McCormack, Lauren Dray and Violet Wong King & Wood Mallesons’ Hong Kong office
The global standard-setter on anti-money laundering/counter-terrorist financing (“AML/CTF”), the Financial Action Task Force (“FATF”) held its recent plenary meeting in Valencia, Spain on 21-23 June 2017.
Key coverage included the ongoing fight against terrorist financing, improving transparency and beneficial ownership, “de-risking” and the application of the risk-based approach (“RBA”).
In this article, we set out 8 key points covered at the plenary meeting and provide 8 key takeaways for financial institutions operating in Hong Kong (“FIs”).
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Affiliates need to be Careful in Information Exchange under PRC Anti-monopoly Law
By Susan Ning, Kate Peng, and Yumeng Li King & Wood Mallesons’ Commercial & Regulatory Group
At the outset, the PRC Anti-monopoly Law (AML) does not set out specific requirement on information exchange among affiliates. However, it explicitly provides that independent competitors are prohibited from reaching monopoly agreements.[1]“Monopoly…
Highlights on Antitrust Guidelines for Automotive Industry– Vertical Non-price Restrictions Face Potential Challenges
By Susan Ning, Cheng Liu, Hazel Yin, Yumeng Li King & Wood Mallesons’ Commercial & Regulatory Group
Summary
Auto suppliers often impose non-price restrictions, such as territorial restrictions and customer restrictions, on their distributors. In previous penalty decisions of Anti-Monopoly Enforcement Authorities (“AMEAs”), non-price restrictions in association with resale price maintenance may be found violating Article 14(1) or (2) of the Anti-Monopoly Law (“AML”). However, AMEAs have yet punished any standalone non-price restriction under Article 14(3) of the AML.
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China’s State Council to announce integrated IPR antitrust guidelines
By Susan Ning, Cheng Liu and Shenglan Liu King & Wood Mallesons’Commercial & Regulatory Group
China’s top antitrust authority, the Anti-monopoly Commission (“AMC”) of the State Council is to issue the integrated IPR antitrust guidelines. AMC has entrusted three antitrust enforcement agencies, the National Development and Reform Commission (“NDRC”), the State Administration of Industry and Commerce (“SAIC”) and the Ministry of Commerce (“MOFCOM”), and the State Intellectual Property Office (“SIPO”) with the task of drafting antitrust guidelines on intellectual property rights (IPRs). It is reported that these agencies are finalizing their respective draft guidelines and will submit the drafts to AMC by the end of March 2016. Since AMC is responsible for coordinating antitrust policies in China, it will take the lead to consolidate the said four draft IP guidelines and issue an integrated one.
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Highlights of the Draft Amendment to China’s Anti-Unfair Competition Law: Abuse of a Comparatively Advantageous Position
By Susan Ning, Hazel Yin, Han Wu, Lingbo Wei King & Wood Mallesons’ Commercial & Regulatory Group
Overview
On February 25th 2016, the State Council published the Anti-Unfair Competition Law (Draft Amendment) (the law hereinafter the “AUCL”, the draft amendment hereinafter the “Draft”) for public comments. Certain issues have arisen since the implementation of AUCL in 1993, for example, new types of unfair competitive behaviors have been under-regulated and the penalties do not have enough deterrent effects. Also, since 2008, the enactment of the Antitrust-Monopoly Law (“AML”) has resulted in overlaps and inconsistent standards of application.
The Draft not only clarifies some traditional anti-unfair competition behaviors listed in the AUCL, but also provides regulation of new types of unfair competition conducts. The current AUCL has 5 chapters 33 articles while the Draft involves amendment to 30 articles. The Draft strikes out 7 articles, adds 9 articles, and totals 35 articles. It mainly amends and improves 6 behaviors (passing off, commercial bribery, misleading advertising, infringement of business secret, sales with giveaway and commercial defamation), and adds two behaviors (abuse of comparatively advantageous position and unfair competition on the internet). Additionally, the draft substantially increases penalties on unfair competition behaviors.
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The establishment of Fair Competition Review in China
By Susan Ning, Chai Zhifeng, Gong Ting, Zhang Tianjie King & Wood Mallesons’ Commercial & Regulatory Group
Regulated by Chapter V of the Anti-monopoly law (“AML”), abuse of an administrative monopoly is interpreted as a kind of abuse of administrative powers to grant favourable conditions to preferred enterprises at the expense of others. Up to now, the National Development and Reform Commission (“NDRC”) has published 6 cases about the antitrust enforcement against administrative monopoly. The most recent case concerns the Gansu Provincial Department of Transport affiliate, Gansu Provincial Transport Bureau, for its alleged abuse of administrative power to restrict competition. The local transport regulator was found to have appointed China Satellite Navigation and Communication as the sole supplier of vehicle terminals for the platform, and set the price of the terminals. The typical alleged abuses involved in these cases include exclusive dealing in favour of a locally owned enterprise or imposing discriminatory requirements for non-local enterprises.
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NDRC Targets Price-related Illegal Conducts in the Pharmaceutical Sector
By Susan Ning Hazel Yin Ruohan Zhang King&Wood Mallesons’ International Trade Group
On May 4, 2015, the NDRC published Notice on Reinforcing Supervision over Medical Prices (“Notice”). In the Notice, the NDRC issued a range of specific opinions on the supervision over medical price, including immediately launching special inspections into illegal conducts under Pricing law and AML and some other specific issues. In this article, we would analyze the antitrust issues which may occur in such special inspections, in order to provide advice for antitrust compliance in pharmaceutical sector.
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商务部在简易程序制度建设上迈出的重要一步:实施简易案件适用标准
2014年2月11日,中华人民共和国商务部(以下简称“商务部”)发布了期待已久的《关于经营者集中简易案件适用标准的暂行规定》(以下简称“规定”),并于2014年2月12日正式开始实施。该规定明确了认定简易案件的具体标准,但并未涉及相应的程序规定。本文将对简易案件的认定标准做具体分析,讨论该规定将如何改变目前中国对经营者集中案件的审查程序,并试图探讨暂未公布简易案件相应程序规定的原因。
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MOFCOM Takes a Major Step towards a Simplified Merger Control Procedure by Promulgating the Standards for Simple Cases
By Susan Ning, Hazel Yin and Zheng Ziqing King & Wood Mallesons’ Antitrust & Competition Group
On February 11, 2014, China’s Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) published the long-awaited Interim Provisions on the Standards for Simple Cases of Concentrations of Operators (the Provisions), which came into effect on February 12, 2014. The Provisions set forth the substantive criteria for determining which case may be treated as a simple case, yet the procedural rules are still missing. This article provides an analysis of the standards, discusses how the Provisions will change the current review process and explores the reasons for the lack of procedural rules.
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