Security, scale and scrutiny: APAC’s antitrust priorities
Across Asia Pacific, competition, technology, and geopolitics increasingly move in lockstep. Regulators are acting faster, demanding more transparency, and reshaping the rules for commercial practices and cross-border dealmaking.
In brief
APAC regulators are moving faster and casting a wider net, driven by technology, national security and geopolitical change. From China’s refined merger regime to Australia’s shift to mandatory notification and Japan’s new digital legislation, competition policy across the region is becoming more assertive and interconnected. For global businesses, that means a more nuanced regulatory landscape and greater scrutiny of deals and businesses touching strategic sectors — where competition, technology and security increasingly move in tandem.
A region redefining competition
APAC’s competition regimes are evolving at speed, with legislative reform, more assertive enforcement and a closer intersection with (geo)politics and digital markets. Authorities are modernizing to address perceived threats to fair competition and, in some cases, to innovation, supply security and national security. Recent shifts include Australia’s shift to mandatory notification, China’s refined merger control and conduct rules, and Japan’s new Smartphone Act. These developments point to a decisive shift across Asia – where competition, technology and policy priorities now move in lockstep, and where faster, more assertive regulators are reshaping how global businesses structure, review and defend their deals.
Selected jurisdictions
Mandatory merger control regime in full force
Australia’s new mandatory, suspensory merger control regime came into full force on 1 January 2026.
The new system requires notification to, and approval by, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) if any of three alternative thresholds are met and the transaction is “connected with Australia”: an economy-wide threshold, a “very large acquirer” threshold, or a three-year cumulative look-back threshold. Phase 1 can run up to 30 business days (extendable); Phase 2 up to 90. Unapproved notifiable mergers are void, and penalties can follow. Transactions below thresholds still carry residual call-in risk if they substantially lessen competition. The ACCC published merger assessment guidelines in June 2025, outlining its analytical framework in assessing notified transactions under the new regime.
Enforcement remaining active
In the 2024 financial year, the ACCC secured more than AU$100m (about $66m/€61m) in fines – its highest annual total for competition breaches – while also using non-litigated tools such as enforceable undertakings and commitments. Current priorities mirror wider APAC trends, with attention to digital markets, aviation, supermarkets and retail, telecommunications, and energy.
Key takeaway: Australia’s shift to a mandatory, suspensory merger-control system marks a fundamental reset; businesses should plan around longer timetables and the ACCC’s more muscular approach.
Looking ahead
Across these markets, regulators are expanding jurisdictional reach, tightening their scrutiny of technology and data-driven sectors, and aligning competition policy ever more closely with public policy priorities, including national security, industrial and economic strategy and people’s livelihood. For global businesses, the message is clear – deeper engagement and closer attention to local enforcement nuance are now essential parts of doing deals and operations in Asia.
