Cartels 2025

CHINA Law and Practice Contributed by: Qian Xiaoqiang, Yang Yikai and Chu Linxian, Haiwen & Partners

a hearing pursuant to the law. If such undertak - ing requests a hearing within the stipulated time - frame, the Competition Authorities must hold a hearing before imposing any sanctions. Once an investigation is initiated by the Com - petition Authorities, it has become increasingly rare for the case to end with no action taken. Since 2021, the Competition Authorities have rarely publicly announced any decisions to sus - pend or terminate investigations (for reference, there was an average of three such cases per year from 2018 to 2020). However, the Compe - tition Authorities sometimes announce ongoing investigations without disclosing the results. For example, in January 2021, the Competi - tion Authorities publicly announced that it had launched an investigation into the China Archi - tectural and Industrial Glass Association for allegedly facilitating certain glass companies to reach a monopolistic agreement. The results of that investigation remain undisclosed. 5.2 Plea Bargaining/Settlement Article 53 of the AML has established “the Undertakings’ Commitments Regime” . During the administrative investigation of the alleged cartel conduct, the AML allows the target under - taking to commit to adopting specific measures to eliminate the impact of its behaviour within a time limit approved by the Competition Authori - ties and apply for suspension of the investiga - tion. Where the commitments are sufficiently and fully fulfilled, the Competition Authorities will issue a decision to terminate the investigation. The Provisions on Monopoly Agreement has set out detailed criteria and aspects regarding the Undertakings’ Commitments Regime and the application for suspension.

• Timing for the application matters as the Competition Authorities will not suspend the investigation if they have collected and veri - fied sufficient evidence to conclude that the alleged cartel behaviour constitutes a monop - oly agreement. • Not all forms of cartels are qualified for apply - ing for suspension. For suspected cartels in the form of pricing fixing, allocating markets or output/sales restrictions, the Competition Authorities will not accept the application for suspension. • Upon the receipt of the application for sus - pension, depending on the nature, duration, consequences, social impact of the alleged behaviour, measures committed by the target undertaking and the expected effects, etc, the Competition Authorities may decide on suspension or not. In the enforcement prac - tice, the Competition Authorities may also consider whether or not the undertaking would admit the existence of an infringement. Although the Competition Authorities may decide to suspend the investigation, such sus - pension may not always be followed by a termi - nation. Article 53 of the AML and Article 35 of the Provisions on Monopoly Agreement stipulate that the Competition Authorities may resume the investigation under the following circumstances, after which the undertakings’ commitments will no longer be accepted by the authority: • the target undertaking does not comply or does not fully comply with the commitments; • there is a significant change to the facts on which the decision on suspension of investi - gation is based; or • the decision on suspension of investigation is based on incomplete or untrue information provided by the target undertaking.

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