NDRC

Subscribe to NDRC via RSS

By Susan Ning  Hazel Yin  Ruohan Zhang  King&Wood Mallesons’ International Trade Group

ning_susanuntitledOn 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.
Continue Reading NDRC Targets Price-related Illegal Conducts in the Pharmaceutical Sector

By Susan Ning, Kate Peng and Lingbo Wei King & Wood Mallesons’ Antitrust Group

NING, Susan (Xuanfeng)彭荷月After more than a year’s investigation into Qualcomm, the NDRC made an announcement of its investigation decision through press release on 10 February 2015.[1] About 20 days later, the NDRC published the full-text of the decision on its official website on 2 March 2015. The decision provided a comprehensive analysis on the definition of the relevant markets, Qualcomm’s dominant position and abusive conducts that are deemed violating the Chinese Anti-Monopoly Law (“AML”), which sent a warning to patent-heavy companies to review their business practices in China.

We hereby set out the points below to provide insight into the facts and factors that the NDRC considered in its decision making process.
Continue Reading NDRC’s Qualcomm Decision：A Warning to Patent-heavy Companies

By Susan Ning, Kate Peng and Lingbo Wei  King & Wood Mallesons’ Antitrust Group

NING, Susan (Xuanfeng)彭荷月On 10 February 2015, the NDRC announced its decision in relation to the abuse of dominance investigation into Qualcomm. Following the announcement, the NDRC held a press conference and revealed more details about the case.

According to Mr. Xu Kunlin, the Director General of the Anti-monopoly Bureau of the NDRC, two US companies filed a complaint to the NDRC about Qualcomm’s alleged abuse of dominance in 2009. In November 2013, the NDRC initiated an investigation into Qualcomm and conducted a dawn raid at Qualcomm’s Beijing and Shanghai offices in the same month. It is reported that during the proceedings, Qualcomm delegates had made 28 visits to the NDRC. Mr. Xu personally attended 8 of those visits. Finally, yesterday the NDRC announced its decision, imposing a fine of RMB 6.088 billion (approximately USD 975 million).  The fine is the largest in China’s corporate history, outnumbering all fines imposed by the NDRC in 2014 (RMB 1.8 billion in total) by more than double.  In addition to the fine, Qualcomm has made commitments to the NDRC to take several rectification measures.

According to press releases, Mr. Xu indicated that the full text of the decision will be published in the coming days.Continue Reading Qualcomm Investigation Finally Closed: Some Changes in Business Model in Addition to an RMB 6.088 Billion Fine

By Xu Ping, Yao Lijuan and Gao Wei    King & Wood Mallesons’ M&A Group

On November 4, 2014, the National Development and Reform Commission (“NDRC”) released the latest draft updating the current 2011 “Foreign Direct Investment Industries Guidance Catalogue (“2014 Draft”),” and called for public opinions on the draft until December 3, 2014.

The Foreign Direct Investment Industries Guidance Catalogue (“Catalogue”) is the central policy of the Chinese government that regulates the inflow of foreign investment in various Chinese industries. The Catalogue classifies foreign direct investments in the industrial sectors as “encouraged,” “restricted,” “permitted,” or “prohibited” and imposed restrictions on foreign investment forms and shareholdings on certain key industrial sectors. Since its inception in 1995, the Catalogue has been revised once every few years. The 2014 Draft, once takes into effect, will become the sixth revision and replaces the current 2011 Catalogue.
Continue Reading “China Welcomes Foreign Investment”——With Draft Revision of Foreign Direct Investment Industries Guidance Catalogue, China Plans Sweeping Foreign Investment Reforms

By King & Wood Mallesons’ Energy& Resources Group

The Management Measures of Natural Gas Infrastructure Construction and Operation (National Development and Reform Commission Decree No. 8) (《天然气基础设施建设与运营管理办法》(国家发展改革委员会令第8号)) (the “Measures”) were published by the National Development and Reform Commission (“NDRC”) on February 28, 2014 and took effect as of April 1, 2014. The purpose of the Measures is to regulate the construction and operation of natural gas infrastructure, encourage different types of investment into the natural gas infrastructure market and to further liberalize the market by promoting fair competition. The key features of the Measures are set out below:
Continue Reading China Further Liberalizes the Natural Gas Infrastructure Market—The Management Measures of Natural Gas Infrastructure Construction and Operation took effect as of April 1, 2014

By Liu Cheng Swita Gan Yu Zhenzhen King&Wood Mallesons’ M&A Group

S001ince the Anti-monopoly Law of the People’s Republic of China[1] (“AML”) came into effect, there has been much debate about the circumstances in which minimum resale price maintenance (“RPM”) will constitute a vertical monopolistic agreement prohibited by Article 14 of the AML. In the debate, the most contentious issue is whether RPM should be regarded as per se illegal or if the “rule of reason” doctrine[2] should be adopted to assess on a case-by-case basis, whether the RPM is illegal.

In reviewing the AML, it can be seen that RPM is one kind of vertical monopolistic agreement, as categorized by Article 14 of the AML. Article 13 of the AML defines monopolistic agreements as “agreements, decisions or other concerted practices that eliminate or restrict competition”. This definition apparently covers vertical monopolistic agreements listed in Article 14. However, opinions differ when it comes to assessing the illegality of RPM. The different opinions can be simplified into two distinct lines of thought: (i) whether the act of RPM is a monopolistic agreement that eliminates or restricts competition definitely with no need to further decide its effect on competition (i.e. to adopt the per se illegal rule) or (ii) whether the act of RPM itself should not be deemed as illegal and a rule of reason approach should be adopted to comprehensively evaluate its effect on market competition, to determine whether or not it constitutes an illegal monopolistic agreement.
Continue Reading Still Unclear Path Forward – Resale Price Maintenance under the AML and Recommendations for Companies

By King & Wood Mallesons’ Compliance Group

Recently, allegations of a massive bribery scheme on the part of the Chinese unit of a famous British multinational pharmaceutical company have grabbed headlines in China and abroad. China’s Ministry of Public Security officially announced on July 11 that senior executives of this company are under criminal investigation on suspicion of using travel agencies to bribe government officials, hospitals, doctors, and medical industry associations in a scheme to increase sales. Some of the company’s senior executives and employees are also suspected of taking bribes from third party vendors.
Continue Reading COMPLIANCE-Watchword of Healthcare Companies and Possible Other Companies in China

by King & Wood Mallesons’ Compliance Group

On July 2, the National Development and Reform Commission (“NDRC”) announced that it is investigating costs and prices charged by 60 foreign and domestic drug makers. Concerned pharmaceutical manufacturers should be aware that the investigation process imposes certain rights and obligations on the manufacturers and the investigating authorities alike.
Continue Reading China’s Investigation into Drug Pricing: What You Need to Know

By Susan Ning, Hazel Yin, and Han Wu

On July 17th, People’s Daily reported that the Price Supervision and Anti-Monopoly Bureau of the National Development and Reform Commission is investigating gold retailers including but not limited to Shanghai Lao Feng Xiang (600612. SH) and Yuyuan Tourist Mart Company (600655.SH) for manipulation of gold jewelry retail price in Shanghai under the auspices of the Shanghai Gold & Jewelry Trade Association (“SGJTA”).
Continue Reading NDRC Probes Shanghai Gold Association and Gold Retailers for Price Fixing

By Susan Ning, Kate Peng, Huang Jing and Li Rui

In May 2013, the National Development and Reform Commission (“NDRC“) initiated the investigation against several infant formula companies for the alleged violation of Article 14 of the Antimonopoly Law (“AML“).

This is the second investigation by NDRC against resale price maintenance (“RPM“).  Early this year, NDRC fined China’s famous producers of premium liquor, Kweichow Moutai Co Ltd. (Maotai) and Wuliangye Group Co., Ltd. (Wuliangye) in the amount of RMB 247 million (about USD 39.8 million) for RPM behaviors (Maotai/Wuliangye Case)i .  The current investigation is still ongoing and no penalty against any companies has been made. 
Continue Reading The Second RPM Investigation by NDRC within this Year