Official Calls for Crackdown on Price-Fixing Agreements

BEIJING, Jun. 2  -- The government should crack down on price-fixing agreements among business owners, said Peng Sen, deputy director of the National Development and Reform Committee (NDRC), the country's top price regulator, on Wednesday.

Peng made the speech while speaking at a two-day anti-price monopoly conference, which is jointly held by the NDRC and the European Union.

Price-fixing agreements are obvious breaches of free, fair and orderly market competition that should be paid great attention while implementing anti-price monopoly regulations, he said.

But Peng did not provide specific examples of price-fixing agreements.

China implemented its first anti-monopoly law on Aug. 1, 2008. The government has also unveiled detailed rules to crack down on anticompetitive, monopolistic-pricing behavior.

The conference, which started Wednesday, focuses on legislation and enforcement of anti-price monopoly rules. It has attracted officials and representatives from the legislatures of EU, the United States, Spain, Germany, Australia.

Officials, scholars and representatives from Chinese government departments and industry associations also attended the conference.