Antitrust probes not targeted at foreign firms: regulators

Recent enforcements aim to create fair market competition

China's anti-monopoly probes are not intentionally targeted at foreign companies, three anti-monopoly regulators announced at a joint press conference on Thursday, held in connection with the recent wave of enforcements of anti-monopoly rules.

All of the probes are "in accordance with the law," with none being targeted at any market player or foreign enterprise, Xu Kunlin, head of the Price Supervision and Inspection and Anti-Monopoly Bureau at the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), said at the press conference in Beijing.

The other two anti-monopoly regulators are the Ministry of Commerce and the State Administration for Industry & Commerce.

Xu also noted that the NDRC'S investigations of US chip maker Qualcomm Inc were "basically completed."

Also on Thursday, the Shanghai Price Bureau, a government body under the Shanghai Municipal Development and Reform Commission, fined Chrysler Group China Sales Ltd 31.68 million yuan ($5.17 million) for monopolistic behavior. The company's three dealers were fined a total of 2.14 million yuan, Xinhua News Agency reported Thursday.

Calls to Chrysler went unanswered on Thursday.

The Hubei Province Price Bureau also announced on its website on Thursday that it has decided to fine FAW-Volkswagen Automobile Co a total of 248.28 million yuan for price fixing. Eight Audi dealers in Hubei also received fines totaling 29.96 million yuan.

The Audi sales division, which is under FAW-Volkswagen, was found to have violated the Anti-monopoly Law, according to the Hubei Province Price Bureau.

The company admitted that the regulators' punishments were reasonable. "We will learn lessons from the event [of price fixing] and improve our work procedures in the future to avoid similar cases," Li Pengcheng, a FAW-Volkswagen spokesperson, told the Global Times Thursday.

The NDRC announced in August that it had started probes into Volkswagen AG's Audi brand and Fiat SpA's Chrysler for their monopolistic practices in China and would punish them in accordance with China's Anti-Monopoly Law.

The antitrust probes into foreign auto companies and high-tech companies, such as Qualcomm and Microsoft, have recently raised concerns among some observers that Chinese regulators will impose stricter fines on foreign firms compared with the domestic companies.

"China's Anti-Monopoly Law is aimed at promoting fair competition for all players, including foreign firms, and protect consumer interests," Huang Yong, a professor of antitrust law at Beijing-based University of International Business and Economics, told the Global Times in a previous interview.

Xue Kepeng, a professor at the China University of Political Science and Law, noted that the recent anti-monopoly probes in auto sectors "are not intended to intentionally crack down on foreign auto enterprise, but aim to ensure that the country's auto market functions in a healthy way, like what the US has done."

The US was the first country globally to promulgate an anti-monopoly law, called the Sherman Antitrust Act, in 1890.

The law has played "an important role in creating a healthy market in the US," Xue told the Global Times on Thursday.

In addition to the auto and high technology sectors, China has stepped up its enforcement of anti-monopoly rules recently in various areas such as cement and premium liquor.

On Tuesday, the NDRC announced in a statement on its website that it had fined three Chinese domestic cement makers a total of 114 million yuan for price fixing.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said during a session of the World Economic Forum in Tianjin on Tuesday only 10 percent of the enterprises under antitrust investigations in China are foreign companies.

"Enterprises in China have got used to being leniently treated [by Chinese regulators] in the past," as China's Anti-Monopoly Law has been in force only for six years, Xue said.

Both foreign and domestic firms should strictly obey the nation's antitrust rules, Xue noted.