Anti-monopoly Law of the People's Republic of China (2022 Amendment)

Anti-monopoly Law of the People's Republic of China (2022 Amendment)

Anti-monopoly Law of the People's Republic of China
(Adopted at the 29th Session of the Standing Committee of the Tenth National People's Congress on August 30, 2007, and amended in accordance with the Decision to Amend the Anti-monopoly Law of the People's Republic of China adopted at the 35th Session of the Standing Committee of the Thirteenth National People's Congress on June 24, 2022)
Table of Contents
Chapter I General Provisions
Chapter II Monopoly Agreements
Chapter III Abuse of a Dominant Market Position
Chapter IV Concentrations Between Undertakings
Chapter V Abuse of Administrative Powers to Preclude or Restrict Competition
Chapter VI Investigation of Suspected Monopolistic Conduct
Chapter VII Legal Liability
Chapter VIII Supplemental Provisions

Chapter I General Provisions

Article 1 This Law is enacted for the purposes of preventing and repressing monopolistic conduct, protecting fair market competition, encouraging innovation, enhancing economic efficiency, maintaining the interests of consumers and public interest, and promoting the sound development of socialist market economy.

Article 2 This Law shall apply to the monopolistic conduct during economic activities in the territory of the People's Republic of China; and this Law shall apply to the monopolistic conduct outside the territory of the People's Republic of China that has an effect of precluding or restricting competition in the domestic market of the People's Republic of China.

Article 3 For the purposes of this Law, “monopolistic conduct” includes:
(1) a monopoly agreement reached by undertakings;
(2) an undertaking's abuse of its dominant market position; and
(3) a concentration of undertakings that has or may have an effect of precluding or restricting competition.

Article 4 The anti-monopoly work shall adhere to the leadership of the Communist Party of China.
The state shall adhere to the principles of market orientation and the rule of law, strengthen the fundamental status of competition policies, develop and implement competition rules suitable for the socialist market economy, enhance the macro control, and improve the united, open, competitive, and orderly market system.

Article 5 The state shall establish and improve a fair competition review system.
In developing provisions involving the economic activities of market participants, administrative agencies and organizations empowered by a law or regulation to administer public affairs shall conduct a fair competition review.

Article 6 Undertakings may, through fair competition and voluntary association, implement concentrations in accordance with the law, to expand their scale of operations and raise their market competitiveness.

Article 7 No undertaking with a dominant market position may abuse its dominant market position to preclude or restrict competition.

Article 8 In industries concerning the lifeline of national economy and national security where state-owned economy has a controlling position or industries where exclusionary production and distribution or exclusionary sale is implemented in accordance with the law, the state shall protect the lawful operations of undertakings, and regulate and control in accordance with the law the operations of undertakings and the prices of their commodities and services, to protect the interests of consumers and promote technological advancement.
The undertakings mentioned in the previous paragraph shall operate in accordance with the law, act in good faith, strictly implement self-discipline, and accept public scrutiny, and shall not damage the interests of consumers by taking advantage of their controlling positions or exclusionary production and distribution or exclusionary sale positions.

Article 9 An undertaking shall not engage in any monopolistic conduct prohibited by this Law by utilizing data and algorithm, technology, capital advantage, or platform rules, among others.

Article 10 Administrative agencies and organizations empowered by a law or regulation to administer public affairs shall not abuse their administrative powers to preclude or restrict competition.

Article 11 The state shall improve and enhance anti-monopoly rules and systems, increase anti-monopoly regulatory forces, raise the levels of regulatory capacity and modernization of the regulatory system, strengthen anti-monopoly law enforcement and administration of justice, try monopoly cases in a fair and efficient manner in accordance with the law, improve the mechanism for connecting agency enforcement actions and administration of justice, and maintain orderly fair competition.

Article 12 The State Council shall form an Anti-monopoly Commission, which is responsible for organizing, coordinating, and guiding the anti-monopoly work and performs the following duties:
(1) Studying and drafting the relevant competition policies.
(2) Organizing the investigation and assessment of general competition status on a market and releasing an assessment report.
(3) Developing and releasing anti-monopoly guidance.
(4) Coordinating anti-monopoly agency enforcement actions.
(5) Other duties as specified by the State Council.
The composition and working rules of the State Council Anti-monopoly Committee shall be prescribed by the State Council.

Article 13 The anti-monopoly enforcement body of the State Council shall be responsible for the unified anti-monopoly law enforcement.
The anti-monopoly enforcement body of the State Council may, as needed in its work, authorize the corresponding bodies in the people's governments of provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the Central Government to take charge of the relevant anti-monopoly law enforcement work in accordance with the provisions of this Law.

Article 14 An industry association shall strengthen the self-regulation of the industry, direct undertakings in the industry to compete lawfully and operate in compliance, and maintain the market competition order.

Article 15 For the purposes of this Law, “undertaking” means a natural person, a legal person, or an unincorporated organization that engages in the production or distribution of commodities or the provision of services.
For the purposes of this Law, “relevant market” means the scope of products or services (hereinafter collectively referred to as “commodities”) and geographic scope within which the undertakings compete during a certain period of time for specific commodities.

Chapter II Monopoly Agreements

Article 16 For the purposes of this Law, “monopoly agreement” means an agreement, a decision, or any other concerted conduct that precludes or restricts competition.

Article 17 Undertakings in a competing relationship shall be prohibited from reaching the following monopoly agreements between them:
(1) An agreement to fix or modify the prices of commodities.
(2) An agreement to restrict the production or sales volumes of commodities.
(3) An agreement to divide the sales or raw material procurement market.
(4) An agreement to restrict the purchase of new technology or new equipment or restrict the development of new technology or new products.
(5) An agreement to jointly boycott trading.
(6) Other monopoly agreements as determined by the anti-monopoly enforcement body of the State Council.

Article 18 An undertaking shall be prohibited from reaching the following monopoly agreements with the other transactional parties:
(1) An agreement to set a specific price of commodities for resale to a third party.
(2) An agreement to set a minimum price of commodities for resale to a third party.
(3) Other monopoly agreements as determined by the anti-monopoly enforcement body of the State Council.
An agreement specified in subparagraph (1) or (2) of the preceding paragraph, which, as the undertaking is able to prove, has no effect of precluding or restricting competition, shall not be prohibited.
If the undertaking is able to prove that its share of the relevant market is lower than the standard established by the anti-monopoly enforcement body of the State Council, and satisfies the other conditions specified by the anti-monopoly enforcement body of the State Council, the agreement shall not be prohibited.

Article 19 An undertaking shall not arrange or provide substantive assistance for other undertakings to reach monopoly agreements.

Article 20 Where a monopoly agreement is reached by an undertaking under any of the following circumstances as the undertaking is able to prove, the provisions of Article 17, paragraph 1 of Article 18, and Article 19 of this Law shall not apply:
(1) For technological improvement or research and development of new products.
(2) For improving product quality, reducing costs, increasing efficiency, unifying product specifications or standards, or implementing specialization of labor.
(3) For improving the operational efficiency of small and medium-sized undertakings or strengthening the competitiveness of small and medium-sized undertakings.
(4) For achieving public interest such as energy conservation, environmental protection, and disaster relief.
(5) For mitigating severe decrease of sales or evident overproduction during an economic recession.
(6) For protecting legitimate interests in foreign trade or foreign economic cooperation.
(7) Any other circumstance as specified by a law or the State Council.
Where the provisions of Article 17, paragraph 1 of Article 18, and Article 19 of this Law do not apply under a circumstance prescribed in subparagraphs (1) to (5) of the preceding paragraph, the undertaking shall also prove that the agreement reached by it will not substantially restrict competition in the relevant market and can cause consumers to share the benefits from the agreement.

Article 21 An industry association shall not arrange for undertakings in the industry to engage in any monopolistic conduct prohibited in this Chapter.

Chapter III Abuse of a Dominant Market Position

Article 22 An undertaking with a dominant market position shall be prohibited from engaging in the following conduct of abusing a dominant market position:
(1) Selling commodities at unfairly high prices or purchasing commodities at unfairly low prices.
(2) Selling commodities at prices below cost without any justifiable cause.
(3) Refusing to deal with the other transactional parties without any justifiable cause.
(4) Restricting the other transactional parties so that they may only deal with the undertaking or with undertakings designated by it without any justifiable cause.
(5) Tying the sale of commodities without any justifiable cause or imposing any other unreasonable trading condition at the time of transaction.
(6) Applying differential treatments in terms of transaction prices and other transaction conditions to the other transactional parties on an equal footing without any justifiable causes.
(7) Other conduct of abusing a dominant market position as determined by the anti-monopoly enforcement body of the State Council.
An undertaking with a dominant market position shall not engage in any conduct of abusing a dominant market position specified in the preceding paragraph by utilizing data and algorithm, technology, and platform rules, among others.
For the purposes of this Law, “dominant market position” means an undertaking's position in the relevant market where the undertaking has the ability to control the prices or quantities of commodities or other transaction conditions or prevent or impact the entry of other undertakings into the relevant market.

Article 23 An undertaking's dominant market position shall be determined based on the following factors:
(1) The undertaking's share of the rele......