How Private Antitrust Litigation May Proceed In China
5 January 2010
By Dr. Gregory K. Leonard and Dr. Fei Deng with former NERA Consultant Wenfeng Tang
In this guest column from Competition Law360, NERA Senior Vice President Dr. Gregory K. Leonard and Senior Consultant Dr. Fei Deng examine a recent ruling in favor of Baidu Inc. -- a popular Chinese Internet search engine company -- in one of the first abuse-of-dominance private actions filed in China. The court's opinion, note the authors, provides insight regarding how private antitrust litigation might be conducted in China in the future. In particular, the opinion addresses relevant market definition, the assessment of market dominance, and the evaluation of a claimed pro-competitive business justification for the alleged conduct. Overall, the approach taken by the court on these issues appears to be generally consistent with that taken in the United States and other jurisdictions, which should be encouraging to antitrust attorneys who counsel clients with operations in China.
