, 2026, the General Administration of Market Supervision issued the Administrative Penalty Decision of Suqian Commodity Concrete Industry Association to organize 17 concrete enterprises to reach a monopoly agreement, and made public the Administrative Penalty Decision of Jiangsu Provincial Market Supervision and Administration, No.1 to No.18 of the Anti-monopoly Case of Jiangsu Municipal Supervision [2026], totaling 18 copies. On May 5,
2019, Suqian Commercial Concrete Industry Association and its member units negotiated and formulated the Notice of Price Adjustment of Urban Concrete, requiring an increase of 35 yuan per square meter for C30 ordinary concrete in urban areas, and 17 member enterprises signed and confirmed it. The Market Supervision and Administration Bureau of Jiangsu Province placed the case on file for investigation on June 3, 2019, and made a penalty decision in February 2026: the association and 17 enterprises were ordered to stop their illegal activities, and each was fined 50,000 yuan, totaling 900,000 yuan. After the
investigation
on May 6, 2019, the news of the joint price increase of concrete enterprises in Suqian City was spread in the circle of friends and public numbers of WeChat. After obtaining clues, the Jiangsu Provincial Market Supervision and Administration launched an anti-monopoly investigation on May 7 and filed a case on June 3. On September 15, 2025, the notice of administrative penalty was served, and on October 28, 2025, the notice of service was issued through the official website of Jiangsu Provincial Market Regulatory Bureau. The parties did not make statements, defend or request a hearing within the legal time limit.
Because the act in this case occurred before the implementation of the Anti-monopoly Law (2022 Amendment), the Anti-monopoly Law before the amendment is still applicable according to the principle of application of the old and new laws.
Illegal facts
On May 5, 2019, the Commercial Concrete Industry Association of Suqian City, in consultation with its member units, formulated the Notice on Price Adjustment of Concrete in Urban Areas, which made it clear that from May 6, 2019, the price of C30 ordinary concrete in urban areas will be raised by 35 yuan per party on the basis of the original selling price. The price of concrete of other grades shall be adjusted accordingly. On the same day, the association sent the notice to the Wechat Group of member enterprises, and agreed that the member enterprises that agreed to the price adjustment would come to the association for confirmation on May 6. After investigation, 17 member enterprises signed and confirmed the price adjustment notice.
Seventeen decisions for enterprises all stated that "the price adjustment notice has not been implemented in another investigation", which was not recorded in the No.1 decision of the association.
The main evidence is the Notice of Urban Concrete Price Adjustment provided by the Association, the Record of Inquiry of the Association and 17 member units, and the registration data of the parties concerned. The selling price of
illegal qualitative
concrete is a market-adjusted price, which is formulated by the operator independently and formed through market competition. The commodity market of this case is ready-mixed concrete, which is difficult to be replaced by other building materials; the regional market is Suqian City, which is limited by the effective transportation distance of ready-mixed concrete supply, and it is difficult for enterprises and downstream users in other regions to form supply and demand substitution. The business scope of 17 enterprises includes concrete sales and all of them operate concrete in Suqian City, which belongs to competitive operators.
The decision found that the price adjustment agreement reached by member enterprises objectively restricted regional market competition, which belonged to the monopoly agreement of "fixing or changing commodity prices" prohibited by Article 13, paragraph 1 (1), of the Anti-monopoly Law before the amendment, and did not belong to the situation listed in Article 15, paragraph 1, and should not be exempted. The association organizes member enterprises to fix or change commodity prices, which violates Article 16 of the Anti-monopoly Law before the amendment. The
punishment results
are consistent with the contents of the 18 written decisions: ordering the suspension of illegal activities and imposing a fine of 50,000 yuan each. Among them, the association is based on the third paragraph of Article 46 of the Anti-monopoly Law before the amendment, and 17 enterprises are based on the first paragraph of the same article.
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