The proposed acquisition also sparked a fierce backlash from consumers. Nearly 80 percent of more than 480,000 respondents in an online poll conducted by the Chinese portal Sina.com as of September 17 said they were against the deal. A similar percentage said they believed the deal would devour another national mainstay brand.

Winning approval

Yong Huang, a Beijing-based antitrust expert who works as an arbitrator at the China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission, said he does not believe the voices of opposition are loud enough to compel regulators to block the deal. He told the Financial Times that "the opposition could prolong the review, as the Ministry of Commerce is likely to be more cautious and take longer in reviewing such a high-profile case."

According to Article 27 of the Anti-Monopoly Law, the antitrust review will consider six factors, including the market share of both parties in the acquisition in relevant markets, whether competition in the relevant market is sufficient, whether the acquisition will create entry barriers or affect technological advances in the market, and the acquisition's influence on customers and competitors.

Defining a suitable and reasonable relevant market is crucial for Coca-Cola to win approval for the deal, said Zhang Xinzhu, Director of the Research Center for Regulation and Competition at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, in an article in the 21st Century Business Herald.

Zhang, who participated in the drafting of the Anti-Monopoly Law, warned against jumping to conclusions about the proposed deal without professional evaluation.

"The antitrust review needs professional judgment," said Zhang, adding that the wide media speculation on both firms' market shares would not help to determine whether the acquisition would eliminate or restrict competition in the relevant market.

"The Ministry of Commerce will have different conclusions if the relevant market is defined as the whole soft drinks market or the pure juice and cola market," she was quoted as saying.

Concern about whether the deal would create a monopoly would be diluted if the acquisition was put into the context of the entire beverage market; otherwise, it could create monopoly concerns, because both companies are major players in their respective niches, Zhang said.

Coca-Cola still had not submitted the antitrust filing for required documents as of September 17.