On 1 August 2022, the Competition Commission (“Commission”) published proposed commitments from seven car distributors (“Distributors”), namely Cartel Motors Limited (“Cartel Motors”), Dah Chong Hong Holdings Limited (“DCH”), Inchcape International Holdings Limited (“Inchcape”), Kam Lung Motor Group Limited (“KLM”), Motor Image (HK) Limited (“Motor Image”), Sime Darby Motor Group (HK) Limited (“Sime Darby”) and Vang lek Holdings Limited (“Vang lek”) in relation to their agreements with seventeen car manufacturers. The relevant legal entities of the Distributors providing the proposed commitments are together referred to as the "Parties".
The Commission has conducted an investigation under section 39 of the Competition Ordinance (Cap. 619) (“Ordinance”) into agreements between certain passenger car manufacturers and their Distributors in Hong Kong. In particular, the Commission has investigated whether these agreements mandate the imposition of potentially restrictive warranty terms and conditions on passenger car owners in Hong Kong (“Warranty Restrictions”).
In response to the investigation, each of the Parties have separately offered commitments under section 60 of the Ordinance to take and refrain from particular actions in relation to the Warranty Restrictions.
In accordance with the procedure set out in section 2, Schedule 2 of the Ordinance, the Commission invites interested parties to submit representations in writing on the proposed commitments.
In addition to the proposed commitments, the Commission has published an FAQs document to provide further useful information on the relevant provisions mentioned above, the commitments given by the Parties and the consultation.
The documents published are:
For FAQs, click here. For a copy of the press release, click here.
Further details on how to submit a representation to the Commission are outlined in the above Notice issued under section 2, Schedule 2 of the Ordinance of the proposed commitments.
Representations should be submitted by 18:00 on 15 August 2022.