Recently, the State Administration of Market Supervision and Administration of the People's Republic of China issued the Interim Provisions on Internet Anti unfair Competition (hereinafter referred to as the Provisions), which is planned to be implemented on September 1, 2024. The Regulations comprehensively sorted out and enumerated the network unfair competition behaviors, optimized the procedures for law enforcement, clarified legal responsibilities, and strengthened platform responsibilities, aiming to maintain the market order of fair competition, encourage innovation, protect the legitimate rights and interests of operators and consumers, and promote the standardized, sustainable and healthy development of the digital economy.

Today, with the digital wave sweeping the world, the network economy has become a new engine to drive economic growth. However, with the rapid expansion of the network market, unfair competition has also been accompanied by the use of data, algorithms, platform rules and network technology. Counterfeit imitation, false publicity, network black PR and other behaviors seriously disrupt the market competition order and affect fair trade in the market. The promulgation of the Regulations severely cracked down on these improper acts, marking a solid step forward in regulating online market competition and maintaining a fair trading environment, which is not only a refinement and supplement of the Law of the People's Republic of China on Anti unfair Competition and the Law of the People's Republic of China on Electronic Commerce and other laws and regulations, It is also a further improvement of the market competition rules in the network era.

The promulgation of the Regulations has many highlights. For example, the Regulations clarify the identification standards and regulatory requirements for online unfair competition, especially the definition and regulation of new types of unfair competition under the network environment, providing a clear basis for the regulatory authorities to enforce the law. For another example, the Regulations strengthen platform responsibilities and require platform operators to strengthen the standardized management of competitive behaviors within the platform. This measure helps to ensure the fairness and transparency of the competitive environment within the platform, and prevent the platform from taking advantage of its own advantages to implement "self preferential treatment", forced "one out of two" and other behaviors. At the same time, as a bridge connecting consumers and operators, the platform can also better protect consumers' rights and interests by standardizing its business behavior.

In addition, in terms of strengthening the protection of consumers' rights and interests, the Regulations clearly stipulate the punishment measures that affect users' choice behavior, such as swiping orders to speculate and returning favorable comments. This measure is conducive to protecting consumers' right to know, right to choose and right to fair trade, and can also improve consumers' shopping experience and trust. In terms of supervision, inspection and legal liability, the Regulations clarify the legal liability for confiscating illegal income and strengthen the punishment for illegal acts; At the same time, it emphasized the responsibilities and obligations of the regulatory authorities, clarified the procedures and principles that should be followed in the regulatory process, and ensured the fairness, fairness and efficiency of the regulatory work.

Of course, the promulgation of the Regulations is only the first step, and the key lies in how to effectively implement and supervise. The market supervision department should strengthen the publicity and education of the Regulations, so that the majority of operators and consumers can understand the contents and requirements of the Regulations, and can consciously abide by and maintain market order; At the same time, the regulatory authorities should also strengthen the daily supervision and law enforcement of the network market, strengthen technical support, use advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence to conduct real-time monitoring and data analysis on the network platform, and timely discover and investigate unfair competition. In addition, in the process of implementing the regulations, feedback and evaluation mechanisms can be established to timely collect and analyze opinions and suggestions from all sectors of society, and constantly improve and optimize the Regulations to ensure its effectiveness and adaptability.

The promulgation of the Interim Provisions on Internet Anti unfair Competition is an important measure in regulating the competition in the Internet market and maintaining a fair trading environment. We expect that under the guidance of the Regulations, the online market can form a more fair, transparent and orderly competitive environment, build a more collaborative and open innovation ecosystem, and inject new vitality into high-quality economic development.

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