Gregory Puff Quoted on China Antitrust Regulations

For its article “In the way or on the way? – China’s new antitrust regulations,” Asian Legal Business quoted Akin Gump Asia practice head Gregory Puff on China’s antitrust policies.

Puff begins by disagreeing with some commentators who believe China is using its antitrust regime as a policy tool: “There is plenty of noise about antitrust being a kind of secret weapon to block some transactions people don’t like…Normally, I would say that’s not the case.”

Further, he believes that Chinese antitrust regulators would bristle at the notion that they are political tools of the government they serve, noting, “My experience with antitrust regulators is that, in China as well as elsewhere, they take their job seriously, and they have a specific mandate to address each case on its merits.”