Will Hong Kong's new competition law have teeth?

A Hong Kong ordinance mandating the establishment of a competition commission comes into effect in January 2014 but it is unlikely to have any real impact until 2015 -- and even that is unclear.

What the new regulatory framework will mean for mergers and acquisitions in Hong Kong won’t really be known until key personnel are put into place, because the attitude of the competition commissioners will be as important as the ordinance’s wording, according to a legal academic who was commenting upon the new ordinance, but who declined to be named.

The original version of this story incorrectly referred to the Hong Kong chief executive, rather than the chief executive...