Starting from August 1st, the State Administration for Market Regulation will pilot the transition from entrusted to formal entrustments for conducting concentrated anti-monopoly reviews on some operators (see attached figure for more information).

On July 31, the State Administration of Market Regulation issued a notice on the official entrustment of some operators' concentration antitrust review, deciding that starting from August 1, the pilot entrustment will be officially converted, and some cases that are eligible for simplified procedures will be entrusted to the market regulatory departments of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong, Chongqing, Shaanxi, and other five provinces (municipalities directly under the central government) for review according to work needs. Starting from August 1, the State Administration for Market Regulation will officially entrust the implementation of some operators' concentration antitrust review (see the attached chart). On July 31, the State Administration for Market Regulation announced the decision to officially entrust the pilot program for operators' concentration antitrust review starting from August 1. According to the needs of the work, some cases suitable for simplified procedures will be entrusted to the market regulatory departments of the five provinces (municipalities directly under the central government) such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong, Chongqing, and Shaanxi (referred to as the entrusted provincial-level market supervision departments). The State Administration for Market Regulation will carry out the pilot program for entrustment of the operators' concentration review from August 1, 2022, to July 31, 2025. Over the past three years, the State Administration for Market Regulation has solidly promoted the pilot program, fully leveraging the advantages of the provincial-level market supervision departments' proximity to enterprises and markets to better serve enterprises in declaring operators' concentration. A total of 1288 cases were entrusted to local authorities, accounting for 54% of all cases during the same period, and the total transaction amount of the cases exceeded 3 trillion yuan. After evaluation, the pilot program has achieved significant results, with the entrustment review mechanism operating well, reasonable standards for entrusted cases and designated areas, efficient and smooth entrustment review processes, improved efficiency in operators' concentration review, increased supervisory capabilities, strengthened collaboration, and gradual strengthening of compliance culture, achieving the expected goals of the entrustment review system. To consolidate the achievements of the pilot program, ensure the stability and continuity of the review work, the State Administration for Market Regulation decided to institutionalize and standardize the successful pilot entrustment model to a formal entrustment system. This measure will help improve the classification and grading system for operators' concentration review and further enhance the efficiency of antitrust review. It will also help better leverage the role of operators' concentration review in maintaining fair market competition, stimulate the vitality of market entities, and create a more fair and dynamic market environment. Next, the State Administration for Market Regulation will continue to strengthen supervision and guidance to the entrusted provincial-level market supervision departments to ensure unified, standardized, and efficient review work. This article is selected from the "Market Talk" WeChat official account; Edited by: Huang Xiaodong, GMTEight.