On March 17, Jiangsu Provincial Market Supervision and Administration issued a penalty decision, imposing a fine of 50000 yuan on Suqian Commodity Concrete Industry Association.
Jiangsu Provincial Market Supervision and Administration said that as a trade association, Suqian Commodity Concrete Industry Association should guide the operators of the industry to compete fairly and operate in accordance with the law, and its behavior of organizing member enterprises to fix or change commodity prices violated the provisions of Article 16 of the Anti-monopoly Law before the amendment. According to the provisions of Article 46, paragraph 3, of the Anti-monopoly Law before the amendment, it was ordered to stop its illegal activities and imposed a fine of 50000 yuan.
On
May 6, 2019, the news of the joint price increase of concrete enterprises in Suqian City spread in the circle of friends and public numbers of WeChat, which had a great impact on the industry and the downstream market. After obtaining clues, Jiangsu Provincial Market Supervision and Administration Bureau has applied the Anti-monopoly Law of the People's Republic of China before the implementation of the Anti-monopoly Law of the People's Republic of China (2022 Amendment) since May 7, 2019, in accordance with the principle of application of the old and new laws, the Anti-monopoly Law of the People's Republic of China before the amendment is still applicable. Hereinafter referred to as the Anti-monopoly Law before the amendment) to carry out anti-monopoly investigations on trade associations and concrete enterprises involved in the case. The case was filed on June 3, 2019. During the investigation, the parties were inspected on the spot, investigated and inquired, and relevant evidence materials were extracted. On September 15, 2025, the Jiangsu Provincial Market Supervision and Administration served a notice of administrative penalty to the parties according to law, informing them of the contents, facts, reasons and basis of the proposed administrative penalty, and informing them of their rights to state, defend and request a hearing. After direct delivery and mail delivery, the announcement of delivery was issued through the official website of Jiangsu Provincial Market Regulatory Bureau on October 28, 2025. Within the legal time limit, the parties did not make statements or defenses, nor did they request a hearing.
Illegal facts and relevant evidence
On May 5, 2019, the Commercial Concrete Industry Association of Suqian City, in consultation with its member units, formulated the Notice on the Adjustment of Concrete Prices in Urban Areas, specifying that "necessary adjustments should be made to the market price of concrete: The price of C30 ordinary concrete in the urban area shall be increased by 35 yuan per cubic meter on the basis of the original selling price; the price of other grades of concrete shall be adjusted accordingly. It is hoped that after receiving this notice, all member units will dock with users as soon as possible, do a good job in explaining, and realize the price adjustment in place.
On the same day, Suqian Commodity Concrete Industry Association sent the price adjustment notice to the member enterprises Wechat Group, and agreed that the member enterprises that agreed to the price adjustment would come to the association on May 6 to stamp and confirm the price adjustment notice. After investigation, 17 member enterprises signed and confirmed the price adjustment notice. The main evidences of the above
facts are as follows:
1. The Notice of Urban Concrete Price Adjustment provided by Suqian Commercial Concrete Industry Association proves the fact that the parties concerned have reached a monopoly agreement with other member units of the industry association.
2. The Inquiry Record of Suqian Commercial Concrete Industry Association and 17 member units proves the fact that the parties have reached a monopoly agreement with other member units of the industry association.
3. Registration data of the parties to prove the identity of the parties. The basis of
administrative penalty and the determination of
the selling price of concrete are market-adjusted prices, that is, the price is set by the operator independently and formed through market competition. The commodity market in this case is ready-mixed concrete, which is an artificial stone used in construction, mixed with cement, sand, gravel, chemical admixtures, etc., and other building materials are difficult to replace it. The regional market of this case is Suqian City, which is limited by the effective transportation distance of ready-mixed concrete supply, and it is difficult for concrete enterprises and downstream users in other areas to form supply and demand substitution for the enterprises involved. The units involved in
this case are the parties and 17 other concrete enterprises in Suqian City: Suqian Renheng Building Materials Co., Ltd., Suqian Deji Concrete Co., Ltd., Jiangsu Zhonghao Building Materials Co., Ltd., Suqian Huayi Concrete Co., Ltd., Suqian Jinkun New Materials Co., Ltd., Suqian Dingli New Building Materials Co., Ltd., Suqian Jiahua Building Materials Co., Ltd., Suqian Huacheng Commodity Concrete Co., Ltd., Suqian Huanmei Building Materials Co., Ltd., Jiangsu Huamei Building Materials Co., Ltd. (Now renamed as Jiangsu Huamei Building Materials Co., Ltd.), Suqian Yefeng Building Materials Co., Ltd., Jiangsu Huaxiang Concrete Co., Ltd., Suqian Best Building Materials Co., Ltd., Suqian Municipal Building Materials Co., Ltd., Suqian Hengfeng New Building Materials Co., Ltd., Weihai (Suqian) Building Materials Co., Ltd., Jiangsu Yanghe New Town New Materials Co., Ltd. The business scope of the above
17 enterprises includes concrete sales, and they all operate concrete in Suqian City, and they have obvious competitive relationship with each other in the regional market. The price adjustment agreement reached by member enterprises objectively restricts the competition in the concrete regional market, which belongs 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.
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