The General Office of the National Development and Reform Commission ("NDRC") has recently distributed the Circular on Further Strengthening Its Internal Fair Competition Reviews (the "Circular").
The Circular makes arrangements in five respects, including "reinforcing the review duties", "having the reviews regulated" and "implementing requirements on public consultation". According to the Circular, for any policy relating to business activities of market players (not limited to normative documents), the department or bureau responsible for designing the policy shall, in accordance with the Opinions of the State Council on Establishing a Fair Competition Review System in the Development of the Market System and the Implementing Rules for the Fair Competition Review System (for Interim Implementation), perform self-reviews to practically fulfill its review duties and avoid the failure to have reviews, the omission of certain parts in reviews or the ineffective reviews, when it is drawing up the policy. Additionally, the Circular requires that in conducting fair competition reviews, the department or bureau in charge of designing the policy shall seek opinions from the interested parties or from the general public. The Department of Laws and Regulations of the NDRC shall make sure whether procedures for fair competition reviews have been performed when it checks the validity of the relevant policies.