Category Archives: Competition law

Full Text of Judicial Interpretation on Anti-Monopoly Law of China Supreme Court

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The Supreme People’s Court issued Regulation on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Law in the Trial of Civil Cases arising from Monopolistic Conducts yesterday and the new judicial interpretation of Anti-Monopoly Law will take effect on 1st June, 2012. We have translated the Chinese version into English as follows:

Regulation on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Law in the Trial of Civil Cases arising from Monopolistic Conducts

To ensure the proper judgment of civil disputes arising from the monopoly, prevent monopolistic conducts, protecting and promoting fair competition in the market, safeguarding the interests of consumers and social public interests, this regulation is enacted according to the relevant regulations such as the Anti-monopoly Law of the People’s Republic of China, the General Principle of the Civil Law of the People’s Republic of China, the Law of the People’s Republic of China on Tort Liability, the Contract Law of the People’s Republic of China and the Civil Procedural Law of the Peoples Republic of China.

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Anti-Trust Law: Please Leave A Window to the Private Enterprise

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Abstract: The merger between Youku and Tudou has drawn wide attention of the medias. Someone event quoted the relevant administrative regulation to demand the initiation of the anti-trust investigation. Well, I hold the different opinion against it. It’s actually infeasible to take a monopoly status in China of private company in China, and to my opinion, the merger and acquisition by private sector shall be permitted by law and exempted from the investigation of anti-trust, which is complying with the purpose of legislature as well as the value orientation of the current phrase.

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360 vs Tencent: The Summary of Anti-Monopoly Court Hearing

On 18th April, 2012, Guangdong Higher People’s Court heard the case of monopolized status dispute filed by Qihoo 360 (NYSE: QIHU) against Tencent (HKEX: 700), with the claim of 150 million yuan. For the background information of the case, please refer to Wiki and a letter from Zhou Hongyi, the CEO of Qihoo 360 to his employees.

The information disclosed from the indictment of Qihoo 360:

I. The request of Qihoo 360

Demanding Tencent to cease the infringement of abusing its market monopoly status, including but not limited to cease the limitation on the transaction between QQ user and Qihoo 360, selling the safeguard software in QQ; demanding the joint compensation by the defendants to the losses of RMB 150 million yuan and the apology to Qihoo 360, also the expenses of reasonable costs and lawsuit fee paid by Qihoo 360 shall also be borne by Tencent.

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Opinions on E-Commerce’s Unauthorized Change to Consumers’ Comments

Case: A noted Chinese E-commerce website is recently charged with unauthorized modification to customer’s comments on the product sold.(note: the link is in Chinese) A newly bought mobile phone was found used by a consumer from Hangzhou City, who afterwards gave a poor comment on the product. Surprisingly to him, his comment was then changed to satisfy one a month later, for this the consumer only got the reply from the website that it’s a misoperation. Actually, it’s not an individual case in recent. (the image is the logo of 360buy.com, a main B2C website in China)

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Does Combination of Youku and Tudou breach China Anti-monopoly law?

Reportedly(the report is in Chinese), the two Chinese leading video websites, Youku.com Inc. (NYESE: YOUKU) (“Youku”) and Tudou Holdings Ltd. (NASDAQ: TUDOU) (“Tudou”) jointly announced today that on 11th March, 2012, they have signed a definitive agreement for the combination of Tudou and Youku in a 100% stock for stock transaction, which has been approved by each party’s board of director but still waiting for the shareholders’ approval, and is planned to be completed in the third quarter of 2012.I think, it shall be noted that some anti-monopoly issues may be arisen from the combination of the two Chinese biggest video websites, which possibly resulting adverse impacts on the rights and interests of consumers and fair competition.

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A Compromise between Michael Jordan and Qiaodan Sports?

Reportedly (Note this report is in Chinese), Michael Jordan, the star sportsman of NBA, recently made a statement that Qiaodan Sports Co., Ltd. (“Qiaodan Sports”) is suspected of infringement on his right of name, and he had initiated the legal proceeding in the People’s Court of China. And by the late news, the Shanghai Second Intermediate People’s Court has accepted this case. It is reported (Note this report is in Chinese) that the Qiaodan Sports has been approved by the Issuance Examination Committee of Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) to issue 11.25 million shares collecting RMB 1.06 billion, which would be issued publicly upon the future approval of China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC). (the image above is the trademark information retrieved from the trademark office of PRC)

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