On June 18, State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR), National Anti-Monopoly Authority released the "Annual Report on China's Anti-Monopoly Enforcement (2023) ". (Hereinafter referred to as "the Report").

The report shows that in 2023, 27 cases involving monopoly agreements and abuse of market dominance were penalized, with total fines and confiscations of 2.163 billion yuan. Additionally, 797 cases of business concentration were concluded, with 782 cases (over 98%) approved unconditionally.

Notably, the pharmaceutical sector faced significant penalties, with fines and confiscations totaling around 1.8 billion yuan, which is around 83% of the annual total.

Specifically, two monopoly agreement cases in pharmaceutical sector resulted in fines and confiscations of 96.581 million yuan, while five cases of abuse of market dominance led to fines and confiscations of 1.702 billion yuan. Among them, in the case of abuse of dominant market position by four enterprises, including Shanghai NO 1 Biochemical & Pharmaceutical Co Ltd, the anti-monopoly enforcement authorities issued a sky-high fine of up to 1.219 billion yuan.

From Sohu

June 18th, 2024