Competition Law in Asia-Pacific provides you with a practical, full-length guide to competition law and practice in the Asia-Pacific region. Drawing on the experience of recognized competition law practice leaders in key jurisdictions, it will help you navigate the competition landscape in 15 countries – from the most developed regimes, to countries where competition law and policy are still emerging.

With an individual chapter for every country you’ll find it easy to refer to, and compare, the key provisions of each country’s competition law and practice. Its practical guidance will help you navigate long-established competition law regimes such as those in Japan, South Korea and New Zealand, as well as more recently established regimes such as those in Malaysia and Singapore. The authors also provide an overview of proposed competition law and policy in jurisdictions such as Cambodia and Laos, where regimes have not yet been implemented.

The various jurisdictional approaches to merger control illustrate differing economic priorities. To help you make the right decisions the authors explain the origins, powers and approach of competition law decision-makers and law-makers in each country, and describe key enforcement action and cases. This valuable insight will show you not only the regulators' approach to enforcement, but also the approach of businesses to compliance.

Chapter-by-chapter help and analysis

Each chapter sets out key areas of competition law including prohibitions on anti-competitive agreements and cartels, abuse of market power or dominance, and merger control.

A table of key provisions for each jurisdiction will help you compare regimes and quickly identify potential issues. These provisions refer to relevant sections of the law, key defences, and commentary in other parts of the relevant chapter.

Comprehensive coverage

After a general introduction, each chapter describes the competition law and practice of a specific country, and includes:

• scope of powers, structure and enforcement approach of the competition authority;
• availability of civil or administrative sanctions, criminal enforcement, and private actions;
• investigations: procedure, powers, burden of proof, appeal;
• substantive tests to assess the impact of conduct on competition;
• assessment of dominance or market power;
• merger notifications thresholds, clearance processes and timeframes, documents and evidence requires;
• key defences and exemptions;
• leniency/immunity programmes;
• inter-agency cooperation (internal and international);
• extraterritorial application; and
• recent developments and proposals for reform.

This thorough and up-to-date comparative analysis on what Asia Pacific countries are doing in the antitrust sector will provide you with the essential practical guide you need to the law and procedure in each jurisdiction.