Preface

On the morning of November 18, 2021, the State Anti monopoly Administration was officially established at No. 8, Sanlihe East Road, Beijing. Only two days later, that is, on November 20, the State Administration of Market Supervision announced the punishment decision for 43 cases of concentration of undertakings that were not declared in accordance with the law.

Content

In this centralized publicity case, in addition to the relatively large number of Internet anti-monopoly law enforcement cases,anti-monopoly law enforcement cases in the financial field are also particularly eye-catching. Fujian Baidu Borui Network Technology Co., Ltd. and CITIC Bank Co., Ltd., two shareholders of the first independent legal person direct selling bank in China, CITIC Baixin Bank, were both fined 500000 yuan for failing to declare the concentration of business operators according to law.

Since then, many banks and insurance companies have also been questioned about anti-monopoly by the relevant market regulatory authorities. The anti-monopoly law enforcement in the financial field is threatening to come.

The anti-monopoly law is known as the “economic constitution” of a country. It plays an indispensable role in the healthy operation of the national economy and is theanchor to maintain the market competition order of a country.. On August 1, 2008, China’s first Anti monopoly Law was promulgated and implemented. For ten years, due to the development of the market, this law intended to prevent and stop monopoly behavior, protect fair competition in the market, improve market operation efficiency, and protect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers and social public interests, but did not attract the attention of the general public.

With the rapid development of China’s economy and society, the global economic environment has also undergone tremendous changes, and the supervision of market competition has also accelerated. At the beginning of 2019, the Anti monopoly Committee of the State Council issued four guidelines on the same day, including the Guidelines for the Application of the Leniency System in Horizontal Monopoly Agreement Cases, the Anti monopoly Guidelines in the Field of Intellectual Property Rights, the Guidelines for the Undertakings of Monopoly Case Operators, and the Anti monopoly Guidelines in the Automotive Industry, to establish open and transparent rules for market players. In June 2019, the State Administration of Market Supervision successively issued three regulations, including the Interim Provisions on the Prohibition of Monopoly Agreements, the Interim Provisions on the Prohibition of Abuse of Dominant Market Position and the Interim Provisions on the Examination of Concentration of Business Operators, to unify anti-monopoly law enforcement procedures, standards and standards. At the same time, the revision of the Anti monopoly Law has also been put on the agenda.

On December 11, 2020, the meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee clearly proposed to strengthen anti-monopoly and prevent disorderly expansion of capital, and strengthen the enforcement of competition supervision in key areas. In 2021, a number of enterprises in banking, Internet, extracurricular education, cement infrastructure and other industries received eye-catching fines.

For financial institutions, the tightening of the regulatory window and the strengthening of supervision began almost at the same time. On December 8, 2021, the Ministry of Finance issued the Notice on Regulating the Transfer of Assets of State owned Financial Institutions, It is clearly stated that “solely state-owned, wholly state-owned, state-owned holding and actual control over the transfer of assets of financial institutions shall strictly abide by national laws, regulations and policies, give full play to the role of the market in allocating resources, follow the principle of equal value and compensation, openness, fairness and justice, and shall not transfer interests improperly through asset transfer,” so as to improve the transparency of asset transfer of state-owned financial institutions and regulate asset transactions. The centralized announcement of the five anti-monopoly punishment cases involving the financial field by the State Administration of Market Supervision also indicates that in the future, any enterprise must operate within the legal framework and must comply with the relevant provisions of the anti-monopoly law.

Status quo

On April 26, 2022, Gan Lin, the deputy director of the State Market Supervision Administration and the director of the Anti monopoly Bureau, revealed at the press conference of the State Council Information Office that: the Anti monopoly Law has entered the agenda of the National People’s Congress and is expected to be introduced within the year; The Central Deep Reform Commission has passed the Opinions on Strengthening Anti monopoly and Deeply Promoting the Implementation of Fair Competition Policies, and the top-level policy framework for fair competition has been formed.

All the above signs indicate that the industry monopoly has aroused high attention from the national senior level, the anti-monopoly law enforcement will be normalized, and the anti-monopoly compliance of the financial industry should also be put on the agenda early to prevent it from happening.

Lawyer Wang Fen

Graduated from the Northwest Institute of Political Science and Law, Economic Law Department, with nearly 10 years of legal service experience, and high customer satisfaction;

Advocate that the law should serve the business, be able to go deep into the frontline of the consulting unit, and provide the consulting unit with operable and valuable services that can pre control risks;

It can independently research and develop topics and provide daily legal training for enterprises, including labor law, contract law, shareholder disputes, intellectual property rights and competition law.