China's landmark antimonopoly law finally taking effect
- China
- 08/04/2008
China’s landmark antimonopoly law finally comes into force on Friday, but uncertainty about how it will be implemented is raising concerns about how it will affect Western companies. Business groups and legal experts generally welcome the long-awaited law, passed last August after years of debate, saying it is basically in line with international practice and should help promote fair competition. But authorities have yet to clarify which government body will be responsible for enforcing the law or to publish the implementing regulations needed to flesh out its relatively broad language, causing some worries about whether it will be fairly and evenly applied. For one, splitting enforcement duties among the Commerce Ministry, the National Development and Reform Commission and the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, as state media have said will be the case, would complicate matters.
