China's Antimonopoly Law
August 2008 will bring the world's greatest athletic competition to China for the first time in history. While all eyes at 8:08:08 p.m. China time on August 8 (an auspicious date and time in Chinese numerology) will be focused on the opening ceremony of the Olympics, another event with longer-term legal consequences will have taken place just a week earlier. That is the date on which China's long-awaited Antimonopoly Law (AML) takes effect. It constitutes a notable step along the path of transition from an economy dominated by state ownership and central planning toward a competitive, market-based and price-driven economy. The AML has even been referred to as China's "economic constitution." It also provides for two new government entities to administer the AML, furthering China's progression from a government dominated by industrial ministries toward a regulatory state.
To read the full article by WilmerHale partner
Lester Ross, which originally appeared in the Spring 2008 issue of
Antitrust,
click here.
