Combating Unfair Competition: The Convergence of China’s Antitrust and Anti-Graft Enforcement Activities
Over the last two years, China’s authorities have been actively investigating alleged antitrust and anti-corruption violations. As discussed in our OnPoint below, these investigations have to date focused primarily on the life science and automotive industries and targeted alleged anti-competitive conduct. They are distinguished by their speed, i.e. they have commenced and concluded quickly, leaving little time for parallel internal investigations, remediation, defence and/ or mitigation. Some have culminated in multi-nationals being convicted and receiving fines rivaling those imposed by the U.S. Department of Justice and Securities Exchange Commission, and their senior executives being held accountable and sentenced to significant jail terms. Given that these investigations are continuing, and are likely to do so for the foreseeable future, we recommend that multinationals operating in China guard against these investigations and their consequences by proactively reviewing the effectiveness of their antitrust/ anti-corruption compliance programmes and providing periodic training to their employees. Our experienced global team of antitrust and anti-corruption practitioners have assisted clients in a broad range of industries in assessing, remediating and mitigating such risks, and in dealing with internal and government investigations. We would be delighted to assist in conducting these reviews and training.
