Professional notice
Zhan Hao and Song Ying lead the competition practice at ANJIE LAW FIRM, which lost Shanghai partner Stephanie Wu to East & Concord Partners in January 2020. The team, which includes another partner and more than 10 associates, remains active in most of the major antitrust cases before the SAMR, as well as two of the biggest and most important private litigations involving competition law. The team said that 2019 was very busy, with five or six new cases hitting the slate. A major client was involved in a dawn raid, and the case could have implications at the intersection of intellectual property and competition law enforcement.
AnJie is advising an internet company in the first investigation of the internet industry since the SAMR was established in 2018. The probe centres on a complaint filed with the SAMR’s predecessor agencies regarding the digital music market and upstream copyright licensors, and raises important questions on enforcing competition law in the digital economy. A team of AnJie lawyers acts for a maker of the chemical toluene diisocyanate (TDI) in private antitrust litigation brought by a Chinese mattress manufacturer against four TDI companies for an alleged horizontal agreement. TDI is a component of polyurethane, which in turn goes into mattresses. The names of clients calling on Anjie for deal work are confidential, but the firm’s client list includes state-owned enterprises in the aerospace and petrochemical sectors.
ANJIE LAW FIRM
AnJie provides its clients with legal service encompassing a full range of competition law practice, including administrative investigations, civil litigations, merger control filings, and antitrust/competition consultation and compliance. AnJie’s Antitrust/Competition practice has been widely recognized by international ranking institutions, such as Chambers & Partners, Who’s Who Legal, The Legal 500, China Law and Practice, Expert Guides and ALB. Chambers & Partners has honored AnJie professionals as “Recommended Competition/Antitrust Lawyers” consecutively since 2012. With its 300 professionals located in Beijing and three branch offices in Shanghai, Shenzhen and Hong Kong, AnJie advises leading companies, financial institutions, international organizations and governmental entities around the world.
The managing partner of AnJie, Dr. Zhan Hao, is a leading expert in private antitrust litigation. The team led by Dr. Zhan Hao and Ms. Song Ying, who have been widely regarded as top-tier antitrust attorneys in China, has regularly represented clients in the most high-profile antitrust litigations in China. For instance, the team successfully represented Sinopec in Yingding v. Sinopec case, the first antitrust lawsuit in oil sector of China. Currently, the team is defending Hitachi Metals in a lawsuit filed by four Chinese rare-earth companies over the alleged patent licensing issues, a leading-edge dispute closely followed by the antitrust circle worldwide. Dr. Zhan and Ms. Song also represented Panasonic in winning the case brought by one of its distributors over alleged monopoly agreement. In addition, they are also handling several high-profile antitrust litigations related to digital economy, which involve highly complex matters.
AnJie has also extensive experience and expertise in assisting clients to better handle investigations by SAMR and the previous antitrust enforcement authorities. The team led by Dr. Zhan and Ms. Song has advised clients in sectors spanning from online platform, semiconductor, LCD, infant milk, insurance, auto parts, PVC, port, software, petroleum to consumer products. In a probe launched by the NDRC, one of former Chinese antitrust authorities, into international auto parts manufacturers, they advised and successfully obtained for its client a fine reduction of around RMB 50 million ($7 million).
AnJie has represented many enterprises in merger control filings, all of which were successfully cleared so far. Dr. Zhan and Ms. Song handled the China filing for the $43 billion concentration between ChemChina and Syngenta, one of the largest overseas acquisitions by a Chinese SOE to date, and successfully obtained clearance from the Ministry of Commerce. AnJie’s clients range from TMT enterprises, large state-owned enterprises to renowned domestic and multinational companies, which are active in numerous industries, including internet, semiconductor, automobile, shipping, chemical, energy, finance, pharmaceutical, transportation, machinery, electronics, textile, aviation, consumer goods, software, and healthcare. Moreover, the extensive and seamless cooperation with international law firms allows AnJie to effectively assist clients in competition matters on a global scale.
Contact:
Dr. ZHAN Hao
Tel: +86 10 8567 5966
Email: [email protected]
Ms. SONG Ying
Tel: +86 10 8567 5979
Email: [email protected]