China’s Revised Outbound Antitrust Compliance Guidelines: Digital Economy, FDI Screening and Private Litigation Signals for Cross-border Dealmaking (2026)
- On 22 September 2026 the State Administration for Market Regulation released a draft revision of the Outbound Antitrust Compliance Guidelines for public comment, with feedback due by 29 September 2026 — the first systemic revision of the 2021 guidelines, which had five chapters and 27 articles.
市场监管总局于 2026 年 9 月 22 日就《企业境外反垄断合规指引（修订草案征求意见稿）》公开征求意见，反馈截止日期为 2026 年 9 月 29 日；这是对 2021 年发布、共五章 27 条的原指引的首次系统性修订。
- The revised draft expands to 33 articles and six appendices.
修订后扩充至 33 条及 6 个附录。
- Three priorities: rising overseas antitrust attention to the digital economy, a high incidence of extraterritorial antitrust litigation and investigations, and insufficient corporate familiarity with the rules of different jurisdictions.
三方面重点：境外反垄断执法对数字经济的关注持续升温、域外反垄断诉讼和调查数量高发、企业对不同司法辖区规则辨识度不足。
- The draft embeds digital-economy enforcement points in the monopoly-agreement, abuse-of-dominance and concentration chapters, updates the latest merger notification thresholds of the EU, the United States and Germany, and flags foreign investment security review and foreign subsidy review regimes.
修订草案在垄断协议、滥用市场支配地位、经营者集中等专章中列入境外执法机构对数字经济的监管要点，更新欧盟、美国、德国等主要司法辖区的经营者集中申报标准，并提示关注外商投资安全审查与外国补贴审查制度。
- On litigation, it adds the rules of major jurisdictions on bringing private civil antitrust lawsuits, filling a gap in the 2021 text, and replaces the general “some jurisdictions…” wording with itemised jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction descriptions.
在诉讼方面，新增主要司法辖区关于发起私人民事诉讼的规定，填补原指引空白；并将原指引中”有的司法辖区……”的笼统表述细化为对代表性司法辖区的逐一列明。
- It also adds a chapter on service support and access to compliance resources, 15 recent global antitrust cases, and six practical appendices covering a risk self-check list, a dawn-raid response process and a merger notification process.
还新增”服务保障与合规资源获取”专章、15 个近年全球反垄断典型案例，以及风险自查清单、突袭检查应对流程、并购申报流程等六个实操性附录。
- Status matters: this is a consultation draft, not yet finalised or in force, and the operative text remains the 2021 guidelines.
重要提示：这是征求意见稿，尚未定稿生效，现行有效文本仍是 2021 年版指引。
China’s Revised Outbound Antitrust Compliance Guidelines: Digital Economy, FDI Screening and Private Litigation Signals for Cross-border Dealmaking (2026) | 中国修订企业境外反垄断合规指引：数字经济、外资安全审查与私人民事诉讼的新提示
Overview
On 22 September 2026 the State Administration for Market Regulation published a draft revision of the Outbound Antitrust Compliance Guidelines for public comment, with feedback due by 29 September 2026. The draft is the first systemic revision of the guidelines issued in 2021, which had five chapters and 27 articles; the revised text runs to 33 articles and six appendices. Because it is a consultation draft, the 2021 guidelines remain the operative text. The signals matter to cross-border dealmaking: the draft folds digital-economy enforcement into the core chapters, updates merger notification thresholds in the EU, the United States and Germany, adds private civil antitrust litigation to the risk map, and asks companies to watch foreign investment security review and foreign subsidy review regimes.
Scope: who the guidelines speak to
The guidelines apply to Chinese companies doing business abroad and to companies operating in China whose activities may affect overseas markets, and the existing rules cover activities including exports, overseas investment and mergers and acquisitions. That scope is why the draft is worth reading even for groups that are not Chinese-owned: a China-based entity whose conduct reaches an overseas market can sit inside the same framework, and its compliance programme has to be built for the jurisdictions the draft now describes in detail.
What the consultation proposes
The regulator said the revision responds to five years of change: major jurisdictions have overhauled their antitrust rules, enforcement has intensified, digital platform conduct is scrutinised more closely, and cross-border merger review has tightened, while the 2021 text did not reflect digital-economy enforcement or the new merger-review landscape. It also noted that, as China’s trade scale and corporate globalisation have grown, some key industries and firms have faced overseas antitrust investigations or litigation, raising the challenges and risks of operating abroad.
Three revision priorities
Digital economy and updated merger thresholds
The draft embeds overseas enforcers’ digital-economy concerns in the chapters on monopoly agreements, abuse of market dominance and concentrations of undertakings. It updates the latest merger notification thresholds of major jurisdictions including the EU, the United States and Germany, and advises companies to pay attention to foreign investment security review and foreign subsidy review regimes.
Private civil antitrust litigation
Against a high incidence of extraterritorial antitrust litigation and investigations, the draft adds, alongside administrative fines and criminal liability, the rules of major jurisdictions on bringing private civil antitrust lawsuits — filling a gap in the 2021 guidelines.
Jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction detail
The draft selects representative jurisdictions: those with active antitrust enforcement, large volumes of Chinese investment and M&A, and distinctive antitrust regimes. It turns the 2021 text’s general “some jurisdictions…” wording into itemised descriptions, so that companies can identify risk effectively when investing, acquiring or operating in a given jurisdiction.
New chapter, cases and appendices
The draft adds a chapter on “service support and access to compliance resources”, covering professional service resources, support from social organisations, government service support, channels for obtaining compliance information and the building of a compliance resource library, and setting out how companies obtain remedies and raise issues with the authorities. It adds 15 typical cases from recent global antitrust litigation and investigations, describing the background, the outcome and the compliance lessons. Six appendices turn the guidance into a working toolkit: a self-check list of overseas antitrust risks, key points for building a compliance management system, a dawn-raid response process, an antitrust litigation response process, a merger notification and review process, and the concentration notification standards and features of selected jurisdictions.
Status: a draft, not yet in force
The document is a consultation draft. Comments close on 29 September 2026, and the text has not been finalised or brought into effect. The operative guidance remains the 2021 version. Readers should treat the draft as a signal of direction rather than as a current legal standard.
What it means for foreign-invested groups
For foreign-invested enterprises and their overseas parents, the draft is a map of how Chinese regulators classify and frame “overseas antitrust risk” in cross-border M&A and in global compliance programmes. Because it also flags foreign investment security review and foreign subsidy review, groups designing two-way investment structures should place China-side security review and host-country-side review on the same timeline and condition list, rather than treating an antitrust filing as the only regulatory gate. In practice, a deal timetable should carry, side by side, the merger notification in each relevant jurisdiction, any security review triggered in the host country, and any China-side review that the structure brings into play. The draft’s value lies less in new prohibitions — it introduces none — than in the checklist discipline it imposes on how those threads are tracked.
Practical steps for deal teams
Map each target jurisdiction’s merger notification thresholds against the draft’s updated list; check whether the transaction touches digital-economy conduct that enforcers scrutinise; add private civil litigation exposure to the risk register; and use the six appendices as templates for the deal file. Keep a dated record of the thresholds applied, so that a later revision can be reconciled against the position taken at signing. Because the text is a draft, verify the final version before relying on any specific threshold.
Sources
- 市场监管总局《关于公开征求〈企业境外反垄断合规指引（修订草案征求意见稿）〉意见的公告》: https://www.samr.gov.cn/hd/zjdc/art/2026/art_b417f77da67d45ab99242f19058171ab.html
- State Administration for Market Regulation, “China’s market regulator to update antitrust compliance guidance for firms operating overseas”: https://english.samr.gov.cn/News/PressReleases/art/2026/art_d747dfe650644c61b38013c0be2441ca.html
- 经济观察网《市场监管总局修订境外反垄断合规指引公开征求意见》: https://www.eeo.com.cn/2026/0922/1045576.shtml
- 腾讯新闻《市场监管总局修订境外反垄断合规指引征求意见 新增数字经济监管与私人民事诉讼规定》: https://news.qq.com/rain/a/20260922A0AR2P00
- 福建省商务厅 风险分析（《企业境外反垄断合规指引（修订草案征求意见稿）》要点）: https://swt.fujian.gov.cn/mqchzhfwpt/chzx/fxts/mrfxfx/202609/t20260923_7217514.htm
- 国家市场监督管理总局: https://www.samr.gov.cn/
中国修订企业境外反垄断合规指引：数字经济、外资安全审查与私人民事诉讼的新提示
概述
2026 年 9 月 22 日，市场监管总局就《企业境外反垄断合规指引（修订草案征求意见稿）》公开征求意见，反馈截止日期为 2026 年 9 月 29 日。这是对 2021 年发布、共五章 27 条的原指引的首次系统性修订，修订后扩充至 33 条及 6 个附录。由于是征求意见稿，现行有效文本仍是 2021 年版指引。修订草案释放的信号与跨境交易相关：它将数字经济执法纳入各核心专章，更新欧盟、美国、德国等司法辖区的经营者集中申报标准，把私人民事诉讼纳入风险图景，并提示企业关注外商投资安全审查与外国补贴审查制度。
适用范围：指引面向谁
该指引适用于在境外从事经营活动的中国企业，以及在华经营、其行为可能影响境外市场的企业；现行规则覆盖的活动包括出口、境外投资和并购等。正是这一适用范围，使得修订草案对非中资背景的集团同样值得一读：一家位于中国、其行为触及境外市场的实体，可能处在同一框架之内，其合规体系需要针对草案如今逐一详述的司法辖区来搭建。
征求意见稿提出什么
市场监管总局表示，此次修订回应五年来的变化：全球主要司法辖区反垄断制度发生变革，执法力度持续加码，对数字平台行为的监管更严，跨境并购审查收紧，而 2021 年版文本未能反映数字经济领域的执法动向与并购审查的新变化。同时，随着外贸规模扩大与中国企业全球化进程加速，部分重点行业和企业遭遇境外反垄断调查或诉讼，”出海”挑战和风险增加。
三方面修订重点
数字经济与更新的申报标准
修订草案在垄断协议、滥用市场支配地位、经营者集中等专章中，列入境外反垄断执法机构对数字经济的关注。它明确了欧盟、美国、德国等主要司法辖区最新的经营者集中申报标准，并提示企业关注外商投资安全审查与外国补贴审查制度。
私人民事诉讼
针对域外反垄断诉讼和调查高发的趋势，修订草案在行政罚款与刑事责任之外，新增主要司法辖区关于发起私人民事诉讼的规定，填补了原指引在此领域的空白。
司法辖区的逐一列明
修订草案选取反垄断执法活跃、中国企业投资并购量大、反垄断法律制度有特殊性的代表性司法辖区，将原指引中”有的司法辖区……”的笼统表述细化为列举式描述，以便企业在相应司法辖区开展投资并购或从事经营行为时有效识别风险。
新增专章、案例与附录
修订草案新增”服务保障与合规资源获取”专章，内容含专业服务资源、社会团体支持、政府服务保障、合规信息获取渠道、合规资源库建设，列明企业获得救济、反映问题的方式和渠道。它新增 15 个近年全球反垄断诉讼和调查的典型案例，介绍案情背景、处罚结果及合规启示。六个附录把指引变成可用的工具箱：企业境外反垄断风险自查清单、合规管理制度建设要点、突袭检查应对流程、反垄断诉讼应对流程、并购申报和审查流程，以及部分司法辖区经营者集中申报标准及特点。
定位：这是草案，尚未生效
该文件是征求意见稿。意见反馈截止于 2026 年 9 月 29 日，文本尚未定稿生效，现行有效指引仍是 2021 年版。读者宜将草案视为方向性信号，而非现行法律标准。
对外资集团意味着什么
对外资企业及其境外母公司而言，修订草案呈现了中国监管机关对跨境并购与全球合规体系中”境外反垄断风险”的分类与应对框架。由于草案同时提示关注外商投资安全审查与外国补贴审查，设计双向投资架构的集团，应将中国侧安全审查与东道国侧审查纳入同一时间表与条件清单，而不是把反垄断申报当作唯一的监管关卡。在实际操作中，交易时间表应当并列承载各相关司法辖区的经营者集中申报、东道国触发的安全审查，以及架构所牵动的中国侧审查。修订草案的价值不在于新增禁止性规定——它并未引入此类规定——而在于它要求以清单化的纪律跟踪上述各条线索。
交易团队的实操步骤
将各目标司法辖区的经营者集中申报标准与草案更新的清单逐项对照；核查交易是否涉及执法机构重点关注的数字经济行为；将私人民事诉讼风险纳入风险登记册；并以六个附录作为交易文件的模板。对适用的申报标准保留带日期的记录，以便后续修订时能与签约时的判断相互核对。由于文本尚为草案，在依赖任何具体申报标准前，应核实最终版本。
来源
- 市场监管总局《关于公开征求〈企业境外反垄断合规指引（修订草案征求意见稿）〉意见的公告》: https://www.samr.gov.cn/hd/zjdc/art/2026/art_b417f77da67d45ab99242f19058171ab.html
- 国家市场监督管理总局英文新闻稿《China’s market regulator to update antitrust compliance guidance for firms operating overseas》: https://english.samr.gov.cn/News/PressReleases/art/2026/art_d747dfe650644c61b38013c0be2441ca.html
- 经济观察网《市场监管总局修订境外反垄断合规指引公开征求意见》: https://www.eeo.com.cn/2026/0922/1045576.shtml
- 腾讯新闻《市场监管总局修订境外反垄断合规指引征求意见 新增数字经济监管与私人民事诉讼规定》: https://news.qq.com/rain/a/20260922A0AR2P00
- 福建省商务厅 风险分析（《企业境外反垄断合规指引（修订草案征求意见稿）》要点）: https://swt.fujian.gov.cn/mqchzhfwpt/chzx/fxts/mrfxfx/202609/t20260923_7217514.htm
- 国家市场监督管理总局: https://www.samr.gov.cn/