China's New Anti-Monopoly Law Provides Valuable Insight Into Future Merger Enforcement for Merger Lawyers

February 2008
M&A Lawyer
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In August 2007, after 13 years of work, China promulgated its first comprehensive antitrust legislation, the Anti-Monopoly Law ("the Law"). Scheduled to come into effect in August 2008, the Law is intended largely to replace China's existing merger control regime and therefore merits a closer look for counsel advising transactions that could trigger mandatory notification requirements in China. Although the Law will attain greater clarity from the forthcoming implementing regulations, this article provides preliminary analysis of key provisions of the Law relating to antitrust aspects of mergers and acquisitions in China. While the Law establishes a broad merger control framework that is largely harmonized with the US and EU standards, some differences remain that are noteworthy for counsel. Due to the infancy and the sweeping general language of the Law, however, practical observations in this article are necessarily predictive rather than grounded in agency precedents.