Anti-monopoly law passed

China's first anti-monopoly law was passed yesterday, effective August 1, 2008, the Financial Times reported. The new law allows the government to review foreign acquisitions of domestic enterprises for fair competition, and "administrative monopolies" for the first time – a significant step in creating a legal basis for doing away with state-owned monopolies. However, the European and American chambers of commerce in China raised concerns over issues such as the definition of the abuse of intellectual property rights to create monopolies and how the law will be implemented by local governments. China's consumer protection and unfair competition laws, most of which were enacted in the early 1990s, do not deal with the issue of commercial monopolies.