B[The State Administration for Market Regulation discusses the "Meituan Acquisition of Malt Field Equity Case": The follow-up review of this case will be promoted in accordance with the law] On October 10, the State Administration for Market Regulation held a special press conference on "The Effectiveness of the Simple Case Review System for Concentration of Operators". At the meeting, when introducing the public hearing on the "Meituan Acquisition of Malt Field Equity Case", Xie Fang, deputy director of the Second Anti-Monopoly Department of the State Administration for Market Regulation, said that the State Administration for Market Regulation will adhere to equal emphasis on development and regulation and promote the follow-up review of this case in accordance with the law. Not long ago, the State Administration for Market Regulation held a public hearing on Meituan’s acquisition of Maltfield’s equity. It is reported that this is the first public hearing in the review of concentration of business operators in China. Xie Fang, deputy director of the Second Anti-Monopoly Department of the State Administration for Market Regulation, said that Meituan’s acquisition of Malt Field’s equity is the first concentration of business operators case in the platform field that does not meet the reporting standards stipulated by the State Council and is required to be declared in accordance with the law, and has received widespread attention from all parties in society. Meituan is the leading online catering takeout platform in China, while Malttian is mainly engaged in delivery aggregation platform services, connecting multiple third-party delivery capacity providers to provide delivery solutions for merchants. In 2024, the combined market share of both parties in China's domestic delivery aggregation platform market will exceed 50%. The State Administration for Market Regulation attaches great importance to this case and conducts review work strictly in accordance with the law. B[The State Administration for Market Regulation approved Focus Media’s acquisition of Xinchao Media’s equity with additional restrictive conditions] On October 10, the State Administration for Market Regulation recently approved Focus Media’s acquisition of Xinchao Media’s equity with additional restrictive conditions. On October 10, the State Administration for Market Regulation introduced the relevant circumstances of the case.
This case is the first concentration of undertakings approved with restrictive conditions in China’s advertising industry. The conditional approval of this case is a further deepening of antitrust law enforcement in the advertising media, an important livelihood service field. During the review process, the State Administration for Market Regulation conducted multiple rounds of field surveys, data calculations and market interviews. After review, Focus Media is the leading company in the domestic elevator media advertising market, with a market share of more than 50%, and has a dominant market position. Xinchao Media ranks second in the market. The concentration will further consolidate Focus Media's market dominance. After the concentration, the entity's bargaining power over downstream advertisers will be further enhanced, which may harm the interests of advertisers and consumers by raising prices, lowering service quality, or attaching unreasonable transaction conditions. At the same time, judging from the overall operating conditions of the advertising industry, the continued diversion of online advertising channels and the indirect competition constraints formed by other outdoor advertising categories can weaken the adverse impact of this concentration on competition to a certain extent.
This additional condition includes three aspects: canceling the exclusive cooperation clause of the property company and no longer adding new exclusive agreements to ensure fair competition in the industry; maintaining the original service level and transaction price to protect the rights and interests of advertisers; the company must also improve the anti-monopoly compliance system, regularly report the performance of the contract, and achieve long-term supervision. Taken together, the commitment plan with additional restrictive conditions submitted by the declarer can effectively reduce the competitive impact caused by the concentration, and the State Administration for Market Regulation decided to approve the concentration with additional restrictive conditions. (CCTV Finance) B[State Administration for Market Regulation: Effectively maintain the order of fair competition in the distribution aggregation platform service market and prevent "involvement" competition] On the morning of October 10, the State Administration for Market Regulation held a special press conference on "The Effectiveness of the Simple Case Review System for Concentration of Operators". Xie Fang, deputy director of the Second Anti-Monopoly Department of the State Administration for Market Regulation, said that the State Administration for Market Regulation will adhere to equal emphasis on development and regulation in the next step, promote the follow-up review of this case in accordance with the law, effectively maintain the order of fair competition in the distribution aggregation platform service market, protect the legitimate rights and interests of various business entities such as small and medium-sized merchants, riders, and prevent "involution" competition. In the future, we will continue to explore the use of public hearing mechanisms to serve the review of key cases, and all parties in society are welcome to actively participate and carry out supervision. B[Combining Leniency and Strictness to Optimize M&A Supervision, China’s First Platform Centralized Hearing Implemented] On October 10, the State Administration for Market Regulation recently held a public hearing on Meituan’s acquisition of the equity in Malt Field. This is the first public hearing in the field of concentration review in China. It is reported that the combined share of both parties in the delivery aggregation platform market exceeds 50%. Upon review, the concentration may restrict small and medium-sized merchants from independently selecting shipping capacity, crowd out third-party shipping capacity providers, and strengthen Meituan’s market control. To this end, the applicant submitted a conditional commitment plan. In order to ensure objectivity and fairness, the General Administration held hearings based on three considerations: First, it involves the interests of merchants, transport operators, riders and other parties, and opinions need to be fully listened to; second, the mechanism of damage to platform economic competition is complex and requires face-to-face cross-examination and debate; third, it is to explore public hearings and improve the level of legalization of law enforcement. The hearing was held on September 18, and invited representatives from Taobao flash sales, JD.com, flash sales, UU errands, industry associations, merchants and riders, experts and scholars to participate. All parties conducted cross-examination debates focusing on the enforceability of the commitment plan and the protection of rights and interests, and achieved the expected results. In the next step, the General Administration will adhere to equal emphasis on development and regulation, promote review in accordance with the law, protect the rights and interests of small and medium-sized merchants and riders, prevent "involution" competition, and continue to explore a public hearing mechanism. (CCTV Finance) B[Jiangsu Suqian Commodity Concrete Industry Association organized 17 concrete companies to reach a monopoly agreement and were all fined] On September 23, the State Administration for Market Regulation announced the administrative penalty decision on the case where the Suqian Commercial Concrete Industry Association organized 17 concrete companies to reach a monopoly agreement. After investigation, on May 5, 2019, the Suqian Commercial Concrete Industry Association negotiated with its member units to formulate the "Urban Concrete Price Adjustment Notice", which clarified that "necessary adjustments will be made to the concrete market price: starting from May 6, 2019, the selling price of C30 ordinary concrete in the urban area will be based on the original sales price, and the price of concrete will be increased by 35 yuan per cubic meter; other The price of concrete with other grades will be adjusted accordingly. We hope that after receiving this notice, all member units will contact users as soon as possible to do a good job in explanation and realize the price adjustment." On the same day, the Suqian Commercial Concrete Industry Association sent the price adjustment notice to the member companies' WeChat group, and agreed that the member companies that agree to the price adjustment will go to the association to stamp the price adjustment notice on May 6. After investigation, 17 member companies signed and confirmed the price adjustment notice.
The Jiangsu Provincial Market Supervision and Administration Bureau believes that the party concerned, as an industry association, should guide operators in the industry to compete fairly and operate in compliance with the law. Its behavior of organizing member companies to fix or change commodity prices violates the provisions of Article 16 of the Anti-Monopoly Law before the amendment. According to the provisions of Paragraph 3 of Article 46 of the Anti-Monopoly Law before the amendment, the Bureau decided to order the parties concerned to stop illegal activities and imposed a fine of 50,000 yuan on the Suqian Commercial Concrete Industry Association and 17 member companies. B[Combating "involved" competition, anti-monopoly law enforcement and special actions to protect enterprises continue to advance] September 3rd, it was learned from the State Administration for Market Regulation that since the beginning of this year, various regions have carried out in-depth anti-monopoly law enforcement and special actions to protect enterprises, focusing on the platform economy, APIs, public utilities, people's livelihood and other fields to strengthen anti-monopoly supervision and law enforcement, and achieved phased progress and results. The State Administration for Market Regulation will continue to promote special anti-monopoly law enforcement and enterprise protection actions, focus on accelerating the construction of a unified national market, in-depth rectification of "involution" competition, adhere to the equal emphasis on standardizing supervision and promoting development, escort the high-quality development of enterprises, and maintain the market order of fair competition. (CCTV News)
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