Use of Investor–state against China’s Enforcement of the Anti-Monopoly Law

Since China introduced the Anti-Monopoly Law (AML) in 2008, China achieved an impressive competition law enforcement field record. However, lawyers and scholars still argue that Chinese competition authorities applied AML disproportionately against foreign companies. Despite the possibility of judicial reviews, many foreign companies still have reservation on the independent of judiciary of China, and they are still reluctant to appeal the decisions before the Chinese courts. In addition, there are some incidents where Chinese competition authorities used the AML to promote its own industrial policy. In this regard, foreign companies are not 100 per cent sure to trust the decisions of the Chinese competition authorities that they apply the AML fairly to safeguard the fair competition between Chinese companies and foreign companies. In this regard, foreign investors are trying to find a system to make sure that they are subject to ‘fair and equitable’ treatment or at least to ‘national treatment’ under the trade agreements between China and its major trading partners. The author is of the view that it is time for the foreign investors in China to consider the ISDS as an option to challenge procedural aspects of the Chinese competition law enforcements. By bringing an AML cases before the ISDS, foreign investors may induce Chinese competition authorities to comply with the due process and fair application of the competition laws, thus safeguarding transparency and predictability of the competition law enforcement of China.