On 20 December 2024, China’s State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) officially released the final version of its Guidelines on the Review of Horizontal Mergers (the “Guidelines”), which came into effect on the same day. The Guidelines provide a comprehensive framework of the key regulatory considerations under China’s merger control regime, setting out potential competition law concerns arising from M&A transactions between actual or potential competitors, and outlining possible arguments to mitigate these concerns.

With effect from 26 April 2024, the State Administration of Market Regulation’s Amended Anti-monopoly Compliance Guidelines for Business Operators notably features the provision of credit for antitrust programs verified by the authority.
The Guidelines set out for the first time the conditions and process for such credit to be granted. The specific prerequisites for granting credit and the type of credit granted varies, depending on the stage of enforcement. Compared with the original 2020 Guidelines, the amended version is more detailed and includes helpful guidance on key antirust risks alongside case studies.

The latest edition of our Asia Pacific Antitrust and Competition Handbook is now available and includes an overview of the key local competition rules applicable to intended transactions, agreements and other business practices in 14 Asia Pacific jurisdictions, and a quick reference table to highlight the different approaches of each jurisdiction.

On 26 January 2024, China issued significantly higher merger filing turnover-based thresholds, with immediate effect. Notably, China has removed a hybrid threshold proposed in the June 2022 draft, which was based on both revenue and market value of target companies and purported to target high-value “killer” acquisitions.

In this regional update, we provide you with a practical overview of the most notable antitrust legal developments of Quarter 1 in 2023 that may affect your business.

Regulators and courts in common law jurisdictions around the world are being given significant and increasing powers to impose financial penalties without traditional criminal law safeguards. Competition law has been particularly susceptible to arguments that traditional safeguards should be discarded to aid regulators in securing convictions. In the first competition case to go to trial in Hong Kong, the Competition Tribunal held in 2019 that in competition proceedings seeking financial penalties, the authority had the burden to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt. This article considers the approach taken in other common law jurisdictions and scope to argue for increased safeguards and human rights protections for clients facing financial penalties.

The article aims to provide an overview of Hong Kong’s merger control regime, which is voluntary in nature and – substantively speaking – only applies to mergers involving a telecommunications carrier licensee, as well as other strategic considerations at early stages of transactions.

The Annual Compliance Conference begins next week and attracts over 6,000 in-house senior legal and compliance professionals from across the world. This leading compliance conference will be held across five weeks from 6 September – 6 October 2022. We will be virtually delivering our cutting-edge insights and guidance on key global compliance, investigations and ethics issues. Our global experts will provide practical insights and analysis on significant developments:
• anti-bribery
• corruption and economic crime
• customs and FTAs
• ESG, supply chain and product compliance
• antitrust and competition
• export controls, sanctions and foreign investment

Click here to view the full agenda and register your interest in joining us virtually at this must attend global compliance conference for senior in-house legal and compliance professionals.

In this regional update, Baker McKenzie partners provide you with a practical overview of the most notable antitrust legal developments of quarter 2 in 2022 that may affect your business.

The fourth instalment of Baker McKenzie’s TMT Looking Ahead delves into 5G, which, with its high speed, ultra-low latency and ability to simultaneously connect multiple devices, continues to drive global business opportunities. 5G use cases are increasingly popular in all levels of infrastructure and across industries and, as such, continue to attract the scrutiny of governments and regulators. In this episode of TMT Talk, Raffaele Giarda, Stephen Crosswell, and Mackenzie Martin discuss the evolving regulatory landscape that applies to 5G, with a particular focus on antitrust and patents.