At the beginning of 2009, the Anti-Monopoly Bureau under Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) posted the draft Guidelines on Definition of Relevant Markets (hereinafter called Guidelines) on its website, and asked any interested individuals or entities to submit comments or suggestions. The deadline is January 31, 2009.
There are four chapters and 11 articles in the Guidelines. It includes purposes and basis of the guidelines, functions of the relevant market definition, concept and types of relevant markets, substitution analysis, methods of defining relevant markets, factors to consider in the definition of the relevant product market, factors to consider in the definition of relevant geographic market, as well as hypothetical monopolist test.
Under the Guidelines, any competitive behavior, including any behavior that currently or potentially could eliminate or restrict competition, occurs within a particular market scope. Defining a relevant market is a process of determining the market scope within which business operators compete with each other. Therefore, defining the relevant market is a precondition for conducting an analysis of competitive behavior and an important stage in anti-monopoly enforcement.
