A Five Year Review of Merger Enforcement in China

Five years have passed since China’s anti-monopoly law (AML) took effect on August 1, 2008. During these five years, the Anti-Monopoly Bureau within the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM), which is responsible for merger reviews in China, has been the most active of the three Chinese antitrust agencies, having reviewed more than 600 transactions by the second quarter of 2013. In this article, we look back at the cases MOFCOM has reviewed to date and the decisions that it has published in cases where the transaction was blocked or approved with conditions. We compile and summarize characteristics of MOFCOM’s merger review activities to shed light on the trends in merger enforcement in China.