Authority to ramp up antitrust probes

China's industry and commerce authority will launch more antitrust investigations this year, following a record number of investigations in 2013, a senior official said on Wednesday.

Antitrust investigations by the State Administration for Industry and Commerce and its local bureaus will primarily target monopolies that severely damage markets and those with a major influence on the economy and society, said Sun Hongzhi, deputy head of the administration, at a work conference.

The authority and its provincial bureaus investigated 12 antitrust cases in 2013 — 40 percent of all the 30 cases since the nation's antitrust law was enacted in August 2008.

Of the 30 antitrust cases, 13 have concluded their investigations, Sun said.

Sun said the authority plans an increase in the number of antitrust cases this year and will focus on cross-regional cases that attract major social attention.

Anti-competitive behavior by public enterprises in telecommunications, public transportation, and water and power supplies will be a key focus. Bribery in the education, construction and medical industries will also be targeted, Sun said.

One of the major anti-monopoly investigations the authority launched was against Swiss company Tetra Pak International. The company, which makes packaging for beverage and dairy companies in China, is facing accusations of abusing its dominant market position.

A spokesman for the authority said the Tetra Pak investigation is still ongoing, denying an online report that the investigation had ended without yielding results.

In addition, antitrust cases on the Internet now will be a major target for the authority as cases of unfair competition involving the Internet has increased over the years, Sun said.

"Cases on the Internet involve not only foul play in the traditional sense, but also behavior that is related to Internet technology. Those new problems pose more challenges to our law enforcement work," he said.

Sun said that the authority is ramping up efforts to push for a revision of the country's 21-year-old law against unfair competition and will also work to make that law consistent with the 2008 antitrust law.

The country's law against unfair competition has failed to cover a number of cases, especially involving the Internet, said Wang Junlin, a lawyer dealing with antitrust cases with the Yingke Law Firm in Beijing.

"The law has no items covering plagiarism or domain-name hijacking, which are now widespread unfair competition behaviors," he said.

Yang Wenbin, deputy chief of the anti-monopoly and anti-unfair-competition law enforcement bureau with the industry and commerce authority, said during a news conference in November that the country's law against unfair competition doesn't cover behavior on the Internet such as commercial plagiarism and interference between applications on smartphones.