The Disputes
Microsoft is sued for alleged excessive pricing in China by Guangzhou Kam Hing Textile Dyeing Co., Ltd. (Guangzhou Kam Hing). In March 2012, Microsoft sued Guangzhou Kam Hing in the Nansha District People’s Court (Nansha Court) for using pirated Microsoft software. According to the news report, the Hong Kong parent company of Guangzhou Kam Hing bought genuine Microsoft software in 2002 but had unsuccessfully negotiated with Microsoft for licensing the software to its subsidiaries in mainland China. Guangzhou Kam Hing, located in Guangdong province adjacent to Hong Kong, then installed pirated Microsoft software and was fined by local authorities in 2010 after Microsoft reporte [...]
On 18 May 2012, the Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court (‘Shanghai Court’) dismissed allegations that Johnson & Johnson Medical (China) Ltd. and its Shanghai branch had set a minimum resale price in beach of China’s Anti-Monopoly Law (‘AML’) and rejected the plaintiff’s claim of damages of CNY 14.4 million (‘J&J RPM case’). It is understood that the plaintiff has filed an appeal to the Shanghai High People’s Court.
The Shanghai Court said that a plaintiff must meet three criteria in order to establish an antitrust injury and claim damages, including: (1) the defendant engaged in monopoly conduct; (2) the plaintiff suffered losses; and (3) a causal link must be est [...]
On 19 May 2012, China’s Ministry of Commerce (‘MOFCOM’) announced its conditional clearance decision on the acquisition of Motorola Mobility by Google, which removed the last hurdle for the USD12.5 billion vertical deal. The MOFCOM is the only antitrust authority to impose remedies on its clearance of the transaction. The US Department of Justice, the European Commission, the Korea’s Fair Trade Commission, and other relevant antitrust authorities have unconditionally approved the transaction.
Review Process
The MOFCOM received the parties’ notification of the transaction on 30 September 2011 but found that the filing documents were incomplete. The MOFCOM formally accepted the notif [...]
The feud between the Chinese Internet companies Qihoo 360 Technology Co., Ltd. (‘Qihoo 360’) and Tencent Inc. (‘Tencent’) has been simmering for nearly two years. This article spotlights the facts and major issues of the dispute.
The Facts
Tencent runs QQ, the most popular instant messaging (‘IM’) service in the mainland China with over 700 million active users by the end of 2011. Tencent also provides information security products, search engine, online media, gaming, interactive entertainment, e-commerce, etc. Qihoo 360 is China’s leading Internet security product and service provider and had over 400 million active users by the end of 2011.
Tencent and Qihoo 360 offer rival [...]
Johnson & Johnson Medical (China) Ltd. (‘J&J Medical’) and its Shanghai branch are sued in China for minimum resale price maintenance (RPM) by a Beijing-based distributor. This is the first private litigation that challenges RPM pursuant to China’s Anti-Monopoly Law (AML).
The Facts
Rainbow Medical Equipment & Supplies Co. (‘Rainbow’) distributed J&J suturing products for 15 years. The distribution agreements were reached annually. In January 2008, Rainbow signed a one-year distribution agreement with J&J Medical and its Shanghai branch (‘J&J Medical Shanghai’). According to the agreement, Rainbow was authorized to sell J&J suturing products to hospitals in allocated regions [...]
The recent Dongfeng Nissan Case shed some interesting lights on the status of vertical restraints rules in China, three years after China’s Anti-Monopoly Law (AML) became effective in August 2008. Currently, China’s competition law regime is still insufficiently equipped to assess and deal with vertical restraints, in spite of frequent complaints on alleged anticompetitive vertical restraints in the Chinese market.
For example, car manufacturers in China typically prohibit authorized car parts suppliers from selling genuine car parts to independent repairers or distributors. Genuine car parts are often exclusively distributed through authorized car dealers, which both sell new cars and [...]
