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The Implementation of China's Anti-Monopoly Law: A Case Study on Coca- Cola's Abortive Acquisition of Huiyuan Juice

  
  My point of view is that instead of focusing on the small and medium-sized enterprises, the Anti-monopoly Law should pay more attention to market competition and consumers and leave industrial policies to support the small and medium-sized enterprises.

  
  3.2 Goals of the Anti-monopoly Regulation on Foreign M&A

  
  The "Anti-monopoly Law" should not protect the interests of a particular enterprise, instead, its goal is to protect market competition (rivals'' competitive rights) and consumer interests.

  
  The "Anti-monopoly Law" is not a panacea and can not bear too many responsibilities. Other than competition, it can provide no solution to issues like the national brand, the foreign capital policy, the national economic security and so on. These issues should be dealt with by other laws. We can not expect the immature "Anti-monopoly Law" to solve a series of problems like setting up national brands, attracting foreign investments or establishing industrial policies. The main purpose of the concentration investigation is to prevent monopolistic behavior. We can not expect this investigation to also conduct penalties against and to regulate the abuse of dominant position and cartel conducts. As long as the reviewers consider there may exist an abuse of the dominant position like bundle sales after the concentration, and there may be more harm than good, they can ban this concentration. Therefore, regulations concerning concentration need not care whether there really is an abuse of dominant position after the concentration.

  
  3.3 A Review of the Nature of This Acquisition and the Definition of Relevant Market

  
  I have noticed that different agencies have different calculation about the share of Huiyuan Juice in relevant market. According to the data offered by the Coca-cola, after the acquisition, their share will be less than 20% in non-carbonated drinks market of China. But according to a calculation carried out by Beijing Orient Agribusiness Consultant Ltd., among the 134 beverage enterprises above certain designated size, the sales of Huiyuan Juice have reached as high as 13.95% in China''s domestic market. In addition, according to AC Nielsen data, Huiyuan in China''s domestic market of pure fruit juice has a high share of 46%. The reason why different institutions have come to different conclusions about the market share of Huiyuan is only because of the difference definitions regarding relevant market by various agencies. In other words, some regard non-carbonated beverage market as relevant market whereas others regard pure fruit juice market as relevant market.

  
  Some scholars held that there exists small chance of substitutability between non-carbonated beverage and pure fruit juice, so its acquisition belongs to mixed M & A. I can not agree on it. Because carbonated drinks and fruit juice drinks have a high possibility to substitute each other, in other words, the substitutability is very high. And Coca-cola has its own fruit juice product - Minute Maid, hence, there exists competition between Coca-cola and Huiyuan. Therefore, this acquisition should be viewed as a horizontal M & A. Anti-monopoly regulation has always been more stringent on the horizontal M & A. On the contrary, the mixed M & A is usually encouraged because it generally optimizes the allocation of resources and is usually a complementary merger.

  
  As far as this acquisition case is concerned, the uniqueness of fruit juice market is that the products with high degrees of breakdown can still be fully substituted. Therefore, the whole fruit juice market is a relevant market. However, since the Ministry of Commerce did not disclose sufficient details of this case, we were unable to determine how it defined relevant market. In the light of the published information, the Ministry of Commerce declared judicially that there was no significant substitution effect between the fruit juice market and the carbonated drinks market. In fact, there is a strong correlation and certain substitutability between the two. Moreover, the Coca-cola also has Minute Maid, the fruit juice product.


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