Review № 20 of Chinese Antitrust News from the Experts of the BRICS Competition Centre
- China's SAMR Holds Symposium on Fair Competition
- China’s Company fined for unlawfully implementing a concentration before obtaining regulatory approval
- Taobao, Tmall win 30 Million Yuan in landmark data protection case
- BMW sales drop in China amid rising competition from domestic brands
- Czech government bans Chinese AI startup DeepSeek usage in public administration due to data security concerns
- Chinese tea brand Chayanyuese enters North American market
- Irish regulator probes TikTok over data storage in China
China's SAMR Holds Symposium on Fair Competition
SAMR held the fourth symposium on fair competition this year, attended by representatives from eight major companies including Great Wall Motor, NetEase, and SF Express. Participants put forward suggestions on protecting fair competition.
SAMR Deputy Director Meng Yang briefed attendees on the recently adopted measures aimed at protecting fair competition among private enterprises. He noted that SAMR places special emphasis on antitrust oversight and merger control.
Source: SAMR
China’s Company Was Fined for Unlawfully Implementing a Concentration before Obtaining Regulatory Approval
China’s SAMR has imposed a 1.75 million yuan ($244,018) fine on Guangzhou Municipal Construction Group for unlawfully implementing a concentration before obtaining regulatory approval.
According to the regulator's statement, Guangzhou Construction signed a share-purchase agreement to acquire a 51 percent stake in Guangdong Hongye Investment Development Group from its parent company, Hongye Electric Power. The parties completed the equity transfer the day after submitting the approval application, violating Article 30 of China's Anti-Monopoly Law, which stipulates: “Within 30 days of receiving documents and materials submitted by undertakings under Article 28 of this Law, the State Council anti-monopoly enforcement agency shall conduct a preliminary review of the declared concentration of undertakings, decide whether to conduct a further review, and notify the undertakings in writing. Undertakings shall not implement the concentration before the agency issues its decision. Where the State Council anti-monopoly law enforcement agency decides not to conduct a further review or fails to make a decision within the time limit, the undertakings may implement the concentration.”
The fine was reduced due to some mitigating circumstances, including: transaction had no anticompetitive effects, company fully cooperated with the investigation by truthfully providing information and had established and effectively implemented an internal antitrust-compliance program.
Source: SAMR
Taobao, Tmall Win 30 Million Yuan in Landmark Data Protection Case
The Nanjing Intermediate People’s Court has ruled in favor of e-commerce giants Taobao, Tmall and Taobao Software in landmark data protection case. The court ordered the defendants to cease the illegal use of data and pay compensation of 30 million yuan. The case, filed in 2023, represents the first major judicial ruling on data governance since China’s Data Security Law took effect.
The plaintiffs argued that since 2019 the defendants’ “Xiaowangshen” plugin and related services unlawfully accessed data from the "Business Advisor" analytics service owned by the plaintiffs. The defendants collected information on products, sales, customers, and promotions, and then commercialized it. These actions not only violated trade secret rights, the data-related rights and interests of e-commerce platforms and merchants but also facilitated unfair competition and undermined the healthy development of the e-commerce industry.
The court ruled that both raw and processed data belong to the plaintiffs and are protected by law. The compensation amount was calculated based on the revenue generated from the data sales and doubled as a punitive measure.
Source: Jiangsu.gov.cn
BMW Sales Drop in China amid Rising Competition from Domestic Brands
German carmaker BMW reported falling demand in China during Q2 2025, while company's global sales remained stagnant, rising just 0.4% year on year to 621,271 units.
The downturn reflects a broader trend among German carmakers, which are losing ground in China to local rivals led by BYD. Mercedes-Benz Group AG’s sales in the country fell 19% in Q2 while Volkswagen AG’s EV deliveries there dropped by nearly a third.
Source: Bloomberg
Czech Government Bans Chinese AI Startup DeepSeek Usage in Public Administration due to Data Security Concerns
The Czech government has banned the country's public administration from using any of the services of Chinese AI startup DeepSeek. As a Chinese company, DeepSeek was obliged to cooperate with Chinese government bodies, which could give Beijing access to data stored on DeepSeek's servers in China, Czech authorities said.
The decision follows similar restrictions imposed on DeepSeek in Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands, all driven by concerns about data protection.
Source: Reuters
Chinese Tea Brand Chayanyuese Enters North American Market
Chayanyuese Tea, a popular Chinese tea drink and snack brand, said it will start selling its products in North America through e-commerce platforms such as Amazon, TikTok Shop, Walmart and Shopify.
About 40 products will be available at first. But Chayanyuese will not initially sell its signature tea drinks in the North American market, it said, citing differences in tea inspection systems between China and the United States.
Chayanyuese started in 2013, and at its peak of popularity customers would line up for hours. Scalpers would buy items such as milk tea and then resell them for 200 to 500 yuan per cup.By the end of last year, Chayanyuese had more than 900 shops in China, including sub-brands.
Chinese tea companies are venturing overseas amid intense competition in the home market. Mixue has opened stores in Japan, Thailand, and Australia, while Heytea has launched branches in Europe and North America.
Source: Yicai Global
Irish Regulator Probes TikTok over Data Storage in China
Ireland's Data Protection Commission (DPC) has opened a new inquiry into TikTok over the storage of European users' data in China after the short-video platform disclosed in April that some data had temporarily been stored on Chinese servers.
This is the second DPC investigation into TikTok this year. The short-video platform, owned by China's ByteDance, was in May fined 530 million euros over concerns on how it protects European users' information, some of which is remotely accessed by staff in China.
The new inquiry will look specifically at the storage of data in China, which was not considered in the previous probe.
TikTok had told it throughout the four-year inquiry that it did not store EU data in China, it disclosed in April that it had discovered two months earlier that a limited amount of data was stored in China and since deleted, regulator said. A spokesperson for TikTok said the company discovered the issue itself and "promptly deleted this minimal amount of data from the servers and informed the DPC", underscoring company’s commitment to transparency and data security.
Source: Reuters
