Guest Editors' Note: Asian Competition Laws

• Author: Toshiaki Takigawa,Mark Williams
• Published date: 01 March 2009
• Date: 01 March 2009
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/0003603X0905400101
• Subject Matter: Article

Guest editors’ note:

Asian competition laws

BY TOSHIAKI TAKIGAWA*

AND MARK WILLIAMS**

I. INTRODUCTION

Today over 100 countries have adopted competition laws.1Among

them, Asia’s competition regimes have increasing importance as a

result of globalization and the rapid growth of many Asian economies

in the last few decades. Increased international trade and investment

flows into these Tiger economies mean that multinational corpora-

tions based in North America or in Europe increasingly have had to

come to terms with the more complex regulatory environment that

has developed in this region. Competition laws directly affect trade

and investment decisions and other business activities. Merger con-

trol, the regulation of anticompetitive agreements, and the abusive

conduct by dominant firms have become the common facets of emerg-

ing Asian antitrust systems. Systems in European-influenced civilian

legal systems also often bundle “unfair” trade practice provisions or

overtly consumer protection measures within their antitrust regimes.

THE ANTITRUST BULLETIN:Vol. 54, No. 1/Spring 2009 :1

ATB Spring 2009 article by: Takigawa & Williams 06-25-2009 Rev.

*Professor, Kansai University School of Law, Osaka, Japan.

** Professor of Law, Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

1See ANTITRUST MODERNIZATION COMMISSION, REPORT AND RECOM-

MENDATIONS 213 (April 2007), available at http://govinfo.library.unt.edu

/amc/.

© 2009 by Federal Legal Publications, Inc.