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Pricing watchdog focusing on high cost of spectacles
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China’s pricing regulator is investigating industries where excessive profits are being made, such as eyeglasses, an antitrust official said yesterday, but said authorities had not opened any probe into the auto industry.
Lawyers in China say client enquiries related to a five-year-old anti-monopoly law have jumped in recent months in the wake of a spate of antitrust investigations across sectors ranging from pharmaceuticals to milk powder and jewelry.
Last month, a Chinese automotive association said it was collecting data on the price of all foreign cars sold in the country for the National Development and Reform Commission, which regulates prices.
But Xu Kunlin, head of the NDRC’s anti-monopoly bureau, told a panel at an antitrust forum in Beijing that the agency had “not selected the auto industry for investigation.”
“We hope that our investigations will bring prices down in industries in which they are high,” said Xu, instead singling out the cost of spectacle frames and lenses, which he said were “many times higher” in China, without giving specific examples.
“I can reveal to everyone today that we are currently investigating spectacles. Actually, the investigation has proceeded smoothly. The relevant companies have all made admissions,” Xu said, though he did not name any firms.
Xinhua news agency has said that foreign carmakers are reaping exorbitant profits selling imported luxury cars in China and should face an antitrust investigation.
China has become a key market for luxury carmakers, with 2.7 million vehicles expected to be sold each year by 2020, overtaking the United States as the world leader in the segment.
Xu defended his agency’s practices against what some lawyers have said is the targeting of foreign firms, saying state-owned enterprises, Chinese and foreign companies had all complained that they were being singled out by the agency.
“We don’t have a concept in our minds about who we are targeting. So long as there is a violation of the law, it will be investigated,” Xu said.
The NDRC has launched nearly 20 pricing-related probes into domestic and foreign firms in the past three years, according to official media reports and research published by law firms.
In particular, authorities are paying attention to whether manufacturers are forcing retailers to set minimum prices for products, which would contravene the anti-monopoly law.
“We come across a lot of companies, especially Chinese companies and our domestic lawyers, who don’t understand [antitrust law], so our communication with them can be very difficult,” Xu said.
“So we very much welcome companies to invite external lawyers to participate in the case investigation.”
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