The Hong Kong Competition Ordinance was recently adopted by the Legislative Council. You can download our briefing here (English / Chinese).
The Ordinance introduces a cross-sector competition law regime in Hong Kong. The main features of the Ordinance are as follows:
- a prohibition on restrictive agreements and concerted practices (first conduct rule)
- a prohibition on the abuse of a substantial degree of market power (second conduct rule)
- a prohibition on anticompetitive mergers in the telecommunications sector
- a judicial enforcement model, where sanctions can only be imposed by a Competition Tribunal
- limited exemptions for small- and medium-sized enterprises and a broad exclusion regime under which most statutory bodies do not fall within the scope of the Ordinance.
The Ordinance will enter into force at a date to be decided by the Government. The Ordinance will be implemented in phases, with the institutional provisions coming into force first to allow the authorities to be set up and to commence work on enforcement guidelines, which will be subject to public consultation. The substantive provisions will only come into force at a later date, probably not before late in 2013 or 2014, by which time guidelines should have been finalised.
For a more detailed review of the Ordinance, please download our briefing (English / Chinese).
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