Private Antitrust Litigation in China - The Burden of Proof and its Challenges

Abstract

This article examines how the burden of proof is allocated in private antitrust suits in China, and tries to assess whether the criticism about the high burden of proof is merited.

The article is organized as follows: Section 1 provides an introduction, and section 2 explains the legislative background. Section 3 lays out the general principle for the burden of proof in antitrust cases. Sections 4 and 5 describe two broad ways for parties to "lower" the burden of proof — by resorting to presumptions and by seeking discovery through the courts. Section 6 concludes.

Keywords: China, antitrust, competition law, private actions, litigation, Anti-Monopoly Law