Recently, China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) imposed large fines on two pharmaceutical distributors. This move indicates the enforcement agency, which supervises price-related monopolistic practices, is beginning to take a more active role in enforcing the country’s Anti-Monopoly Law.

China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the enforcement agency that supervises price-related monopolistic practices, imposed huge fines on two pharmaceutical distributors recently. This news was released 14 November 2011, just days after the NDRC revealed its investigation into suspected anti-competitive behaviour of China Unicom and China Telecom, two giant, state-owned telecommunication companies. (See China Cracks Down on Anti-Competitive Practices of Major State-Owned Enterprises for more information.) China’s Anti-Monopoly Law has been effective for more than three years. The Ministry of Commerce, another agency responsible for merger control aspects of the Anti-Monopoly Law, has been very active, while the NDRC has engaged in only limited enforcement activity. Now it seems the NDRC is beginning to bear its teeth.