Cartels 2025

CHINA Trends and Developments Contributed by: Li Ren (Roy), Beijing DHH Law Firm

• The cases in 2024 were concentrated in industries such as vehicle inspection, con - struction materials, and public utilities. Among them, there were three cases in the vehicle inspection industry, two in construc - tion materials, one in real estate, one in public utilities (liquefied petroleum gas), one in driver training, and one in used car trading. • All cases were fined, with penalties rang - ing from 1% to 6% of revenue. Leniency was applied in some cases. Only one case involved confiscation of illegal gains, and some cases did not disclose the full penalty decisions. • All cases were investigated by provincial-level antitrust enforcement agencies. Confiscation of illegal gains, and fines In 2024, confiscation of illegal gains was rare, applied in only one case (the Hunan Vehicle Inspection Cartel). Other cases did not con - fiscate gains due to difficulties in determining the amount, such as unclear financial records or challenges in calculating competitive market revenues. For example, the Anhui Bottled LPG Cartel and Xinjiang Rock Wool Cartel did not confiscate gains due to irregular financial man - agement or difficulties in estimating competitive revenues. The remaining seven cases did not specify the reasons for not calculating illegal gains. Among the nine cases, the leniency policy was applied in both the Xinjiang Rock Wool Enterpris - es Cartel Case and the Tianjin Vehicle Inspection Companies Cartel Case. In the Tianjin Vehicle Inspection Companies Cartel Case, Tianjin Jin - bei Company qualified as the first-in-line lenien - cy applicant for voluntarily reporting the violation and providing crucial evidence prior to case ini - tiation, thereby receiving full immunity from fines under China’s Anti-Monopoly Law. Tianjin Lan -

hai Vehicle Inspection Service Co., Ltd., as the second-in-line applicant that co-operated with the investigation, was granted a 50% reduction in fines. In the Xinjiang Rock Wool Enterprises Cartel Case, Xinjiang Western Goldtech Build - ing Materials Co., Ltd. met the leniency require - ments and benefited from an 80% fine reduc - tion, considering its shorter duration of violation. Notable enforcement practices The Chongqing Xiushan Transport Association case was not disclosed via a formal penalty decision but was included in the State Admin - istration for Market Regulation’s First Batch of Typical Anti-Monopoly Enforcement Cases in 2024 for People’s Livelihood Areas. Cartel litigation cases In 2024, the SPC concluded and published three notable cartel cases. “Rice Noodle Producers” Horizontal Cartel Case [Supreme Court (2023) Zui Gao Fa Zhi Min Zhong No. 653] In this case, the plaintiff, a rice noodle manu - facturer from Yunnan, sued seven defendants (including enterprises and individuals engaged in rice noodle production and sales) for form - ing a horizontal cartel through supply agree - ments and co-operation agreements since 2017, which involved price-fixing and joint boycotts, ultimately forcing the plaintiff to cease produc - tion. The first-instance court found only some defendants liable for price-fixing and awarded merely CNY20,000 in litigation costs. On appeal, the SPC ruled that all defendants participated in the horizontal cartel, overturned the initial judg - ment, and ordered joint liability for damages totalling CNY1.1 million (including CNY1 million for economic losses and CNY100,000 for rea - sonable expenses).

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