Kelvin Kwok on Rethinking the Antitrust-Securities Interface (American Business Law Journal)

"Rethinking the antitrust-securities interface"
Kelvin Kwok
American Business Law Journal, Summer 2026, pp. 151-175
Published online: May 2026

Abstract: This article proposes a new theoretical framework for resolving conflicts between antitrust law and securities regulation, which is distinctive in four respects. First, it eschews the traditional approach of resolving antitrust-securities conflicts through implied antitrust immunity, which unjustifiably prioritizes securities regulation above antitrust law. Second, it argues for a narrow definition of conflict, encompassing only conduct presently authorized or required by the securities regime that also has likely and significant anticompetitive effects; practices that are illegal under both antitrust law and securities regulation are thereby excluded. Third, this article builds on the literature on the antitrust-intellectual property interface to recommend a structured, rule-of-reason framework for resolving conflicts at the antitrust-securities interface. Unlike implied antitrust immunity, which automatically allows securities regulation concerns to trump antitrust concerns, the rule of reason seeks to strike a proper balance. The analysis begins by asking whether the securities practice has likely and significant anticompetitive effects. It then inquires into the securities regulation concerns behind the conduct and whether there is a less restrictive means of addressing those concerns. Fourth, a two-stage procedure is proposed for implementing the rule of reason to resolve antitrust-securities conflicts in rulemaking and adjudication, involving the collaboration of the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Department of Justice, and the courts.

Please click here to read the full article on SSRN.

Julian Nowag on Global Antitrust and Sustainability: Law, Economics, Enforcement (Oxford University Press)

Global Antitrust and Sustainability: Law, Economics, Enforcement
Julian Nowag
Oxford University Press
Published online: September 2025

Abstract: Sustainability is a topic that is also gaining in importance for antitrust and competition authorities. The book investigates how competition law and competition authorities around the world deal with sustainability. It covers, economics, law, and enforcement matters. The book also sets out the basics of the concept of sustainability that are necessary for competition lawyers to work with such matters. It explores what economics has to say about the relationship between sustainability and competition. In the legal part, the book covers numerous jurisdictions ranging from developed to developing countries and the work of established and newer agencies. It investigates how competition law enforcement can foster sustainability and also discusses the legal tools available to ensure that competition law enforcement does not unnecessarily hinder sustainability activities by private actors. In a separate chapter, process matters and enforcement tools are considered, in particular those that are available to competition agencies to foster sustainability.

Angela Zhang on How Antitrust Facilitates China’s Goal to Achieve Technological Self-Sufficiency (China Platform Governance)

"How Antitrust Facilitates China’s Goal to Achieve Technological Self-Sufficiency"

Angela Zhang

China Platform Governance 

Published on 27 June 2022

Introduction: This essay is part of The Four Domains of Global Platform Governance, an essay series that examines platform governance from four distinct policy angles: content, data, competition and infrastructure.

     Ant Group’s attempted initial public offering (IPO) in 2020 was to be the biggest in world history. If it had succeeded, 18 Chinese individuals would have become billionaires overnight. Unfortunately for Ant, Chinese regulators put the brakes on the deal just two days before it was to go ahead (Yang and Wei 2020). Ant never became the biggest IPO in Chinese history, while Alibaba (Ant’s affiliated company) would, just a few months later, become the recipient of the biggest fine ever issued by Chinese antitrust authorities. The months leading up to that US$2.8 billion1 fine were characterized by a fierce antitrust campaign aimed at China’s tech giants, all of whom have since faced some level of regulatory scrutiny over their business practices. .... Click here to read the full text. 

New Book by Angela Zhang: Chinese Antitrust Exceptionalism: How the Rise of China Will Challenge Global Regulation (OUP)

Chinese Antitrust Exceptionalism: How the Rise of China Will Challenge Global Regulation
Angela Zhang
Oxford University Press
Published on 11 March 2021
Overview: 

• Analyses Chinese antitrust law in the broader context of China's developing global economic presence
• Explores the ways in which bureaucratic missions, cultures, and structures of administrative agencies can play a crucial role in shaping the enforcement agenda, investigative approach, and final regulatory outcomes in China
• Describes how Chinese antitrust law can be transformed into a powerful economic weapon to counter aggressive U.S. sanctions
• Examines the new difficulties that Chinese firms will encounter as the U.S. and E.U. regulators tighten scrutiny over investment and trade from China

Description: China’s rise as an economic superpower has caused growing anxieties in the West. Europe is now applying stricter scrutiny over takeovers by Chinese state-owned giants, while the United States is imposing sanctions on leading Chinese technology firms such as Huawei, TikTok and WeChat. Given the escalating geopolitical tensions between China and the West, are there any hopeful prospects for economic globalization?  In her compelling new book Chinese Antitrust Exceptionalism, Angela Zhang examines the most important and least understood tactic that China can deploy to counter western sanctions: antitrust law. Zhang reveals how China has transformed antitrust law into a powerful economic weapon, supplying theory and case studies to explain its strategic application over the course of the Sino-US tech war. Zhang also exposes the vast administrative discretion possessed by the Chinese government, showing how agencies can leverage the media to push forward aggressive enforcement. She further dives into the bureaucratic politics that spurred China’s antitrust regulation, providing an incisive analysis of how divergent missions, cultures and structures of agencies have shaped regulatory outcomes.  More than a legal analysis, Zhang offers a political and economic study of our contemporary moment. She demonstrates that Chinese exceptionalism—as manifested in the way China regulates and is regulated, is reshaping global regulation and that future cooperation relies on the West comprehending Chinese idiosyncrasies and China achieving greater transparency through integration with its western rivals.

Praises & Endorsements:

"Informed by legal analysis, game theory, and deep knowledge of both Chinese and Western legal practices, this valuable book provides a guide both to present-day controversies and to a more hopeful way forward."
  -Dani Rodrik

​"This is an excellent book on a hugely important issue... I recommend the book highly to anyone who has an interest in Chinese political economy."
  -Yasheng Huang

"The book is astute, engaging, and highly compelling."
  -Anu Bradford

"Required reading for anyone interested in China-West relations through the lens of law and real-world politics."
  - Noah Feldman
​
"Angela Zhang's new book ... fills a big gap in understanding the mystery of China."
  -Eleanor Fox

The launch of the new book: HKU's Centre for Chinese Law is pleased to announce the launch of a new book Chinese Antitrust Exceptionalism: How the Rise of China Challenges Global Regulation by Dr Angela Huyue Zhang, published by Oxford University Press this week. This book explores the unique ways in which China regulates and is regulated by foreign countries, revealing a ‘Chinese exceptionalism’ that is reshaping the global antitrust regime. In this book, Dr Zhang dives deep into the unique Chinese political and economic institutions, examining bureaucratic politics, the power imbalances between businesses and the government, the highly decentralized economic system, and state-led governance. This allows her to explain the dilemmas foreign multinationals have faced in complying with Chinese antitrust law, as well as the difficulties Chinese firms have encountered overseas as US. and EU antitrust regulators tighten their scrutiny over Chinese businesses. Dr Zhang’s book has proven to be incredibly timely. In the past few months, China has taken unprecedented action to enforce antitrust regulations against its leading firms, such as the fintech conglomerate Ant Group and its affiliate Alibaba. Dr Zhang’s responses to these events have been quoted by numerous media outlets including the WSJ, Financial Times and the Economist, and her commentaries have appeared in Project Syndicate, Nikkei Asia, Fortune and Bloomberg. Recently, Dr Zhang was featured on CNBC, as well as the Economist’s virtual event on balancing innovation and regulation. Dr Zhang is an associate professor of law and the director of the Centre for Chinese Law at the University of Hong Kong. An award-winning legal scholar, Zhang is a highly sought-after commentator on Chinese antitrust issues. Before joining the University of Hong Kong, Dr Zhang taught at King’s College London and practiced law for six years in the United States, Europe, and Asia. She received her LLB from Peking University, and her LLM, JD and JSD from the University of Chicago Law School. Dr Zhang will be giving virtual book talks on April 16 at UPenn, April 19 at Harvard, and April 30 at Oxford. These events are free to attend and open to the public. Dr Zhang’s book is now available on Amazon, Book Depository, and OUP (30% discount with promotion code ALAUTHC4). More details on the book are available on a dedicated website.

Angela Zhang: China is Leaning into Antitrust Regulation to Stay Competitive with the US (Fortune)

"China is leaning into antitrust regulation to stay competitive with the U.S."

Angela Zhang

Fortune

Published on 9 Feb 2021

Introduction: The Ant Group is planning a major revamp in response to pressure from Chinese financial regulators, just three months after Jack Ma’s outspoken remarks against them. New antitrust rules concerning tech firms went into effect on Sunday. While Ma’s critical speech may have been the tipping point for the government to rein in Big Tech, there have been long-standing economic, social, and industrial policy issues that merit the government’s action. In fact, Beijing’s recent efforts to strengthen antitrust regulation in the tech sector are motivated by a larger goal: to become a technology superpower and achieve self-sufficiency so that China no longer needs to rely on the West... Click here to read the full text.

Kelvin Kwok on The Concept of 'Agreement' Under Article 101 TFEU (ELR)

"The Concept of 'Agreement' Under Article 101 TFEU: A Question of EU Treaty Interpretation"

Kelvin Kwok

European Law Review

2019, Vol 44, p 196

Abstract: Despite the importance of the “agreement” concept under art.101(1) TFEU, the concept remains underdeveloped by courts and commentators. This article reconstructs the “agreement” concept based on theories of legal interpretation and contract as well as comparative law insights. It argues, based on a theoretical framework for EU Treaty interpretation and a broad, objective conception of an antitrust agreement, that the objectivity and correspondence requirements for contractual agreements have continuing relevance, while the precision requirement should be appropriately relaxed, for antitrust agreements. Drawing on insights from US antitrust jurisprudence, it advances three concrete proposals emerging from the in-depth comparison between antitrust and contractual agreements, namely that the art.101(1) “agreement” concept embraces tacit collusion, encompasses concerted practices and decisions of associations, and is independent of subjective intentions. 

Award Winning Competition Law Scholarship by Dr Angela Zhang (2019)

Congratulations to Dr Angela Zhang for her outstanding success in this year's Antitrust Writing Awards 2019.  Two of her recent articles won an award and a third one was shortlisted.  She is the only person to win more than one award this year.

Winner (Procedure Category)  "Strategic Public Shaming: Evidence from Chinese Antitrust Investigations" (2019) 237 China Quarterly 174-195.  

Winner (Asian Antitrust)  "The Role of Media in Antitrust: Evidence from China" (2018) 41 Fordham International Law Journal 473-530. 

Shortlisted (Concerted Practices)  "Strategic Comity" (2019) 44 Yale Journal of International Law

    Dr Zhang was recently a panel speaker at the Hearings on Competition and Consumer Protection in the 21st Century organised by the United State's Federal Trade Commission from 25-26 March 2019 in Washington DC.  The 11th session was titled "The FTC's Role in a Changing World" and focused on the agency's international work.  It explored the FTC’s international role in light of globalization, technological change, and the increasing number of competition, consumer protection, and privacy laws and enforcement agencies around the world. Speakers addressed the implications of international developments on the FTC’s work on behalf of American consumers.  Dr Zhang spoke on a panel with three other professors including Francesca Bignami (George Washington University), Christopher Yoo (University of Pennsylvania) and Philip Masden (College of Europe). During the hearing, Dr Zhang referred to several of her articles on EU courts and judges and the institutional challenges in Chinese antitrust enforcement.