National Market Regulators Crack Down on Driving School Monopolies, 12 Cases Investigated

In recent years, driving training industries in certain counties and third- and fourth-tier cities have faced issues such as coordinated price hikes, collusion among associations, irregular fee structures, and reduced training quality. From 2022 to date, China’s market regulation authorities have concluded or are currently handling 12 monopoly-related cases in the driving training sector, spanning over ten provinces—particularly concentrated in county-level areas of Southwest and Northwest China—and involving more than 100 local driving schools, with each case implicating between 4 and 17 entities. Over 30% of these cases were initiated by industry associations, which orchestrated price-fixing, market division, and profit allocation through meetings, signed agreements, or the formation of alliances. Notable examples include: - In Tongliang District, Chongqing, seven driving schools established an alliance management committee that mandated minimum fees for small-car driving tests (Subjects 2 and 3). - In Jiangjin District, Chongqing, six motorcycle driving training institutions jointly set up a “central school,” implementing unified pricing, fee collection, instruction, examinations, and expenditures—the so-called “five unifications”—which inflated motorcycle training fees from around RMB 200 to RMB 900. Following regulatory intervention, these fees dropped significantly. Going forward, market regulation authorities will maintain stringent anti-monopoly enforcement and carry out regular crackdowns on monopolistic practices and other violations in the driving training sector.