Economy

Public input sought on business concentration draft

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2011-06-04 11:35

BEIJING - The Ministry of Commerce (MOC) said Friday that it will accept public feedback from June 3 to 13 on a draft concerning the assessment of business concentration.

According to the draft, the ministry's anti-monopoly bureau will be in charge of conducting anti-trust investigations into business concentration cases, said the MOC in a statement on its website.

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The MOC will take into consideration the market share of entities involved in business concentration activities, their ability to control the market and degree of market concentration when conducting anti-trust investigations, it said.

Also, it will consider the impact of proposed concentrations on market access, technological progress, consumers, other related operators and national economic development, it added.

The draft noted that business concentration can help expand business scale and increase market competitiveness. But it can also disrupt healthy competition and development, it said.

The MOC can prohibit business concentration if found likely to result in elimination or restriction of competition. But if the entities can prove that the concentration will have favorable consequences on the market and society in general, then the MOC will approve it, it added.

If the MOC approves a business concentration, it can still impose restrictive conditions to minimize adverse effects on market competition, it said.