State Administration for Market Regulation: The average review time for simple cases of concentration of undertakings has been shortened to 18.6 days

China News Service, October 10. On the morning of October 10, the State Administration for Market Regulation held a special press conference on "The Effectiveness of the Simple Case Review System for Concentration of Undertakings". Xu Lefu, Director of the Second Anti-Monopoly Department of the State Administration for Market Regulation, introduced at the meeting that the simplified case review system for concentration of undertakings was established in 2014 and has been implemented for 12 years. The average review time has been shortened from 39.9 days in 2014 to 18.6 days this year, which has significantly reduced the institutional transaction costs of corporate investment and mergers.

Xu Lefu said that the Anti-Monopoly Law proposes to improve the classification and hierarchical review system for concentration of operators and improve the quality and efficiency of review. The simplified case review system for concentration of undertakings is an important measure to implement the classification and hierarchical review requirements of the Anti-Monopoly Law. Its core is to divert cases that are unlikely to cause competition problems to the fast review channel, so that transactions can be approved in a shorter time, and to serve corporate investment and mergers. At the same time, limited administrative resources can focus on key cases to ensure the quality of review and effectively maintain fair market competition.

The simplified case review system was established in 2014 and has been implemented for twelve years. In order to further optimize and improve this system, we have recently organized and carried out relevant review and evaluation work, and listened to the opinions of experts, enterprises, law firms, provincial market regulatory authorities, etc. through the distribution of questionnaires, research discussions, etc.

Judging from the research and evaluation, everyone fully affirmed the effectiveness of the simple case review system, which is mainly reflected in five aspects:

First, the effect of separating traditional and simplified languages is obvious. The State Administration for Market Regulation has continuously accumulated experience in practice, clarified institutional rules, and the number of cases approved under simplified case procedures has increased significantly. In 2014, the number of simplified cases that were unconditionally approved accounted for 49.2% of all unconditionally approved cases. This year, it has increased to 88.8%. The vast majority of M&A transactions have been quickly cleared through simplified case review.

Second, review efficiency has been significantly improved. The State Administration for Market Regulation has established and strictly implemented the "Double Twenty" internal time limit requirements for simple cases, and the review efficiency of simple cases has continued to improve. The average review time for simple cases has been shortened from 39.9 days in 2014 to 18.6 days this year, which has significantly reduced the institutional transaction costs of corporate investment and mergers.

Third, the application materials should be reasonably streamlined. Compared with non-simple cases, the information items that need to be reported in simple cases have been reduced from 53 to 44. In 2024, we will further simplify it to 38 items. Some companies have estimated that the average declaration cost of simple cases has been reduced by more than 50% compared with non-simple cases.

Fourth, transparency is significantly enhanced. At the beginning of the establishment of the system, the State Administration for Market Regulation released a list of unconditionally approved cases on a quarterly basis. Starting in 2019, it began publishing weekly lists to release transaction approval information to the market in a timely manner. In 2025, a simple case announcement form query function will be added to the Anti-Monopoly Business System for Concentration of Undertakings to facilitate enterprises to retrieve past simple case information.

Fifth, the synergy between central and local governments has been improved. In 2022, the State Administration for Market Regulation launched the entrusted review of simple cases. As of September this year, the entrusted provincial market regulatory authorities have undertaken the review of 65.8% of simple cases. At the same time, local compliance guidance continues to deepen and is closer to corporate services, investment and mergers and acquisitions. This year, the entrusted review team has newly joined the market supervision bureaus of Liaoning Province, Zhejiang Province and Sichuan Province, and the review efficiency will be further improved.