An Interplay between the PRC Anti-Monopoly Law and Its Recent Telecommunications Reform

摘要

A new PRC Anti-Monopoly Law (AML) was enacted on August 30, 2007 and tookrneffect on August 1, 2008. The new AML is a milestone in Chinese economic policy. Itrnwill reorganize the competition paradigm in many Chinese domestic sectors.rnPRC's telecommunications sector has been through a number of major reforms inrnthe past two decades. These reforms include one fundamental regulatoryrnrestructuring and three significant market reshuffles. As a result, the PRC Telcornindustry has developed by an astonishingly fast speed. In May this year, the PRCrnState Council initiated an significant Telco reform in both regulatory structure and thernmarket place. This reform has created a super power telecommunications regulatorrnand merged six previous major telecommunications SOEs into three giant SOEsrntelecommunications operators.rnAgainst this background, this paper investigates the new AML and its variousrnprovisions in relation to antimonopoly and anti-competitive conducts and attempts tornvalidate those provisions against the recent PRC telecommunications reform. Part 1rnprovides an introduction of the telecommunications industry in China including itsrnregulatory framework and its market arrangement. Part 2 studies the 13-year longrnlaw making history of the new AML and highlights some of the major aspects of thernlegislation. Part 3 analyses the recent telecommunications reform in China andrnparticularly the mergers/acquisitions introduced to six previous market players/SOEsrnand its implications to the Telco market. Part 4 consists of an analysis of the interplayrnbetween the AML and the recent Telco reform.rnIn conclusion, the paper argues that the recent PRC Telco reform constitutes anrnadministrative monopolistic conduct in the Telco market, which clearly breachesrnprovisions set in chapter 5 of the new PRC AML. If this situation is not addressed byrnthe PRC government in a timely manner, it would undermine the sustainability of thernTelco industry and challenge the effectiveness of the AML.