The State Administration for Industry & Commerce (SAIC) recently announced that it has organized its regional agencies to investigate allegations of anticompetitive market practices by food giant Tetra Pak International SA. New Zealand’s Fonterra Cooperative Group Ltd. is also responding to a similar investigation in the consumer dairy space.
Last month the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) initiated a pricing probe in the infant formula market. Nestle, Abbott Laboratories, Mead Johnson and other mostly international producers have been targeted, some of whom have announced price reductions in response.
Nor has the pharmaceutical sector been spared with Astellas, GlaxoSmithKline, Merck and Novartis, among others, including some domestic concerns, receiving pricing surveys from the NDRC.
Foreign companies in these industries that have not yet been named would be well advised to prepare.
This article was originally published by Bingham McCutchen LLP.