October 31, 2014

Recently W&B’s partner Xiaosu Zhu was invited by the Shanghai subsidiary of the famous multi-national corporation – Shimano Inc. to provide two special legal trainings for its employees on the topic “Latest Developments of Anti-Monopoly Enforcement and Risk Precautions”. 

Presently the National Development and Reform Commission (the “NDRC”) is reinforcing actions against monopoly. The P.R.C. Anti-Monopoly Law was implemented as early as in 2008, but it was not until November 2011 that the first anti-monopoly ticket was issued. However, the NDRC has kept on anti-monopoly actions since 2013; for example, it successively initiated anti-monopoly investigations into magnates in a number of industries including LCD panel, milk powder, Chinese liquor, automobile and telecommunications. Recently it also issued tickets to enterprises in such industries as auto parts, insurance, cement and imported automobile. The total amount of anti-monopoly tickets issued since 2013 has exceeded three billion RMB. There is every indication that anti-monopoly actions will formally become normality in China, which poses a significant legal risk that must be attended to in business operations. 

During the training, Xiaosu first introduced to Shimano’s employees the latest developments and the ongoing trends in anti-monopoly enforcement. Then he elaborated on issues including vertical monopoly agreements, refusal to deal and limitations on deal among the acts of abuse of market dominant positions based on Shimano’s specific business conditions, making analysis by combining key legal points and specific cases and providing explanations in simple terms. Finally at the Q&A session he answered questions from the employees regarding practical problems encountered in the company’s actual business operations. The legal training was well received by Shimano’s employees.