Earlier this year, China’s Ministry of Commerce (“MOFCOM”) implemented new regulations under the Anti-Monopoly Law (“AML”) enabling “simple” M&A and joint venture transactions to be eligible for a potentially shorter and less burdensome “summary procedure.” (See our prior alert here on the Tentative Provisions on the Applicable Standards Relating to the Summary Procedure for Cases of Concentration of Business Operators (“Tentative Summary Procedures”). MOFCOM has recently issued additional procedural rules (i.e., the Guiding Opinion on Filing of the Simple Cases of Concentration of Business Operators (Trial), “Guiding Opinion”), as well as a simplified notification form and a “public notice” form, to clarify certain aspects of the operation and requirements of this new summary procedure.

While the Guiding Opinion provides further helpful clarity on how MOFCOM intends to implement the Tentative Summary Procedures, merging parties in seemingly “simple cases” are likely to continue to face some uncertainty and risk regarding the summary procedure’s precise nature, scope and timing. Below we summarize the provisions of the Guiding Opinion and its key implications to parties involved in transactions requiring a China AML filing.