Between Business and Government: The Addressees of Obligations Under the Anti-Monopoly Law
China's Anti-Monopoly Law – The First Five Years, (Adrian Emch & David Stallibrass Eds.), Kluwer Law International (2013)
28 Pages Posted: 10 Sep 2014 Last revised: 1 Oct 2014
Date Written: August 1, 2013
Abstract
Over the last 30 years or so, China has been in transition from a planned to a market economy, yet this process has not yet been completed. Today, many state-owned enterprises continue to compete alongside private enterprises in the market. In addition, the government itself at times plays an important role in the economy.
The Chinese Anti-Monopoly Law (AML) takes into account the "mixed" nature of China's economy, as it targets anti-competitive conduct by both market players and government bodies.
This paper's goal is to shed light on these two broad categories of addressees of obligations under the AML. First, it examines the concepts of "business operators" (to which Chapters 2-4 of the AML apply) and that of authorities and organizations with public powers (to which Chapter 5 of the AML applies). Then, the paper looks at the fields of overlap or conflict between these "private" and "public" actors – in particular, situations (1) where it is difficult to distinguish whether an entity acts as a business operator or an organization with public powers, and (2) where the anti-competitive conduct is performed "jointly" by a business operator and an organization with public powers.
Keywords: Antitrust, Anti-Monopoly Law, AML, China, state-owned enterprises, SOEs, Anti-Unfair Competition Law, AUCL, Price Law
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