Mergers, Antitrust and the China Card

Mergers, Antitrust and the China Card

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The fear of Chinese economic hegemony looms large in the Western world. Merger partners and other antitrust litigants take advantage of the frenzy and assert a defense: “We have to do it to compete with China.” This chapter tells three stories in which the private actors invoked the China defense. In the two U.S. cases, the private actors won. In the one EU case—Siemens/Alstom, the European Commission won the battle, but will it win the war? For competition authorities and policymakers, the moral of the stories is: Be on the lookout for the China card. It may be a diversion from the real fact that the companies are consolidating significant market power. It may be, further, that antitrust retreat in the name of the Chinese dragon will not help a bit in the quest for global competitiveness.

Source Publication

Research Handbook on Global Merger Control

Source Editors/Authors

Ioannis Kokkoris, Nicholas Levy

Publication Date

2023

Mergers, Antitrust and the China Card

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