Beijing launches antitrust review in 80 key industries
Survey covers 80 key industries as regulator seeks to eradicate monopolistic practices
Beijing has launched a review into potential anti-competitive behaviour across 80 major industries, including cars, pharmaceuticals and alcoholic drinks, a Ministry of Commerce official said.
The ministry, one of the mainland's three antitrust regulators, sent a notice to the country's major industry associations last month, asking them to help collect information from their member companies in an anti-monopoly survey, said a statement on the mainland's car dealers' association posted last week.
The survey was not targeting any specific industries, but was aimed at eradicating anti-competitive behaviour in all sectors, said Qiu Zhongyi, an official at the ministry's market order department. "We're far from reaching any conclusion yet, but it's possible that the situation is more severe in some industries, such as [cars]," he said.
Beijing last year stepped up a crackdown on antitrust practices. The ministry's review is part of a campaign launched in December targeting practices that hinder free market competition, such as setting up protectionist policies against companies from other cities and provinces and granting unfair subsidies.
The National Development and Reform Commission, the price regulator, has already punished companies in sectors ranging from milk powder to eye glasses for breaching antitrust laws.
Vice-Premier Ma Kai in March, for example, called on local governments to eradicate local protectionism and promote fair competition around electric cars, Xinhua said.
Before February, Shanghai only subsidised electric cars satisfying criteria such as the ability to reach 50km/h in six seconds, met only by models from Shanghai-based SAIC and Shanghai Zhongke Lifan Electric Vehicle. In Beijing, the inability to obtain licence plates for e-cars before February meant the BAIC E150 of local maker BAIC Motor Corp came up against limited competition.
In August last year, an official at the China Automobile Dealers Association said the association had been collecting data on the price of all foreign cars sold in the country for the NDRC.
