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By Susan Ning, Hazel Yin, Yangdi Zhao King & Wood Mallesons’ Commercial & Regulatory Group

Tuntitledhuntitlede 12th Five-Year-Plan period (2011-2015) has witnessed intense antitrust enforcement efforts by the Chinese antitrust regulators. Recently, the National Development and Reform Commission (“NDRC”), the price-related antitrust regulator in China released a summary report on its achievements during the past five years. In particular, a total of 97 price-related antitrust cases were concluded, and the fines imposed and illegal gains confiscated amount to approximately RMB 10.4 billion yuan. Among the 97 cases, 29 were handled by NDRC directly and 68 by its local counterparts. 76 cases related to monopoly agreements, 13 concern abuses of market dominance, and 8 involve administrative monopolies.
Continue Reading A Snapshot of Developments in NDRC’s Antitrust Enforcement and Legislation from 2011-2015

By Susan Ning, Hazel Yin, Han Wu, Lingbo Wei King & Wood Mallesons’ Commercial & Regulatory Group

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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.
Continue Reading Highlights of the Draft Amendment to China’s Anti-Unfair Competition Law: Abuse of a Comparatively Advantageous Position

By Jonty Warner and Zoe Bartlett King & Wood Mallesons’ London Office

Introduction

As more global businesses expand into the growing African market, protection of their brands has become increasingly important. However, gaining trade mark protection in Africa has proven to be difficult for many brand-owners. Research by the World Intellectual Property Office (WIPO) found…

By Mark Schaub and James Zhang  King & Wood Mallesons

Hschaub_mow It Happens?

It was an ordinary Tuesday morning in February when Mandy, a senior accountant in MCA Corporation Ltd, a major US machinery manufacturing company, received 2 emails from company’s CEO Steve Green. This email address was not Mr. Green’s usual one but Mandy did not pay much attention to this since Mr. Green did on occasion use alternative email addresses.

The email came with the subject ‘Urgent and Confidential’.  The first line of Mr. Green’s email stated “Below information is highly confidential, please communicate with me via this email and do not copy in anyone else”.  Mandy read on. According to the email, Mr. Green was currently in China conducting a top secret M&A deal and was being supported by a firm named Elite Consulting. The email attached two bills from Elite Consulting requesting immediate payment of in total USD$4,320,000. As prompt and efficient as Mandy always is, she wired the amount on the same day to the Chinese bank accounts that was indicated in the email.

The next morning, Mandy was shocked to see Mr. Green pass by her office thinking ‘shouldn’t he be in China?’ All of sudden, the unfamiliar email address with nobody else copied, the mysterious consulting firm, top secret communications, urgent payment to China all pointed to MCA having been the victim of a fraud.  
Continue Reading Taking Immediate Action: Responding to Cross-border Fraud in China

By Ian Hargreaves and Robert Bolgar-Smith King & Wood Mallesons’ London Office

Chargreaves_iompanies that operate in numerous jurisdictions have long faced the burden of complying with various regulatory regimes that can vary significantly and change rapidly. Increasingly, however, regulators are expanding not just the extent of the regulations but also their jurisdictional coverage.

Regulations…

By Darren Roiser  King & Wood Mallesons’ London Office

Iakhtar_sn response to an unprecedented rise in the number of international sanctions and the increasing complexity of the restrictive measures imposed, recent years have seen corporates and financial institutions implement ever more advanced IT solutions to assist with sanctions compliance.

Indeed, enforcement authorities around the…