The role of economics and the quality of antitrust case assessment in China: an empirical investigation

This article empirically measures indicators capturing the role of economics in the antitrust decisions of the Competition Authorities of China from 2010 – 2021. The methodology allows that identification of the legal standards (LSs) adopted in assessing different conduct types and their evolution. The LSs are compared to their theoretically optimal level in order to deduce quality of enforcement. Comparative analysis is undertaken with published results on the role of economics for EC’s DGCOMP, UK’s CMA and Russia’s FAS. The Chinese Authorities’ enforcement record lags behind in quality that of DGCOMP and CMA in abuse of dominance cases though it is already well ahead of countries in which their modern Competition Law enforcement started at about the same time (2008), like Russia.