Economic Observation
Original title: New regulations issued, pointing to unfair competition on the Internet
Worker's Daily - Yang Zhaokui, reporter of China Industrial Network
Recently, the State Administration of Market Supervision announced the Interim Provisions on Internet Anti unfair Competition (hereinafter referred to as the Provisions), which will come into force on September 1, 2024. In the opinion of experts, the promulgation of the Regulations is conducive to preventing and stopping unfair competition on the Internet, maintaining the market order of fair competition, encouraging innovation, protecting the legitimate rights and interests of operators and consumers, and helping to build a unified national market.
At present, China is accelerating the construction of a unified national market, which is a major deployment made by the Party Central Committee and the State Council from a global and strategic perspective. Fair competition is the key element and powerful driving force for accelerating the construction of a unified national market. Anti unfair competition plays a fundamental role in maintaining fair competition, which is related to the basic level and quality of market economy.
In recent years, with the rapid development of China's digital economy, information technology innovation iterations, counterfeiting, confusion, false propaganda, commercial slander and other traditional unfair competition behaviors use Internet technology to reinvent. New types of online unfair competition, such as reverse order swiping (giving bad reviews to competitors) and illegal data acquisition, are more hidden, which hinder the improvement of economic operation efficiency, the free flow of goods and factors, and the formation of a unified national market. Therefore, it is urgent to strengthen fair competition governance and constantly improve the efficient, complete, transparent and predictable normalization regulatory mechanism.
In addition, the adjustment of the global competition pattern has accelerated, a new generation of economic and trade rules is taking shape, and institutional competition has become an important part of international competition. Some countries and regions have made a series of new institutional arrangements for the digital economy, and anti unfair competition has become an important concern of international economic and trade rules. Therefore, it is urgent to strengthen forward-looking dynamic research, promote the integration of China's competition policy with international rules, improve the trade and investment environment, and continue to deepen the institutional opening in the field of competition.
It can be said that the promulgation of the Regulations is just in time. It can provide clear guidance and bottom line for all kinds of business entities, ensure the efficient and orderly operation of the market competition mechanism on the track of the rule of law, guide the better empowerment of digital technology, and thus lead to the continuous improvement of China's competitiveness.
One of the highlights of the Regulations is that they insist on encouraging innovation and regulating competition at the same time. While protecting the innovative achievements of enterprises and promoting the Internet industry to maximize its innovative potential, they also ensure fair transactions between business entities of different sizes, promote the coordinated development of various enterprises, prevent disordered competition, and strive to create a good market environment.
The Regulations adhere to the problem orientation, classify and sort out the network unfair competition behaviors according to the complex and changeable characteristics of the network competition behaviors, and clarify the identification standards. It clarifies the new manifestations of traditional unfair competition behaviors such as counterfeiting, confusion, false propaganda, etc. in the network environment, regulates hot issues such as scalping, speculation, and return of favorable comments, and strives to eliminate regulatory blind spots.
For new types of unfair competition in the network field, the Regulations enumerate such unfair competition behaviors in the network as reverse order swiping, malicious interception or shielding, illegal data acquisition, unreasonable restrictions or additional unreasonable conditions imposed by platform operators on operators in the platform, and clarify the applicable provisions of the law. For example, Article 12 of the Regulations states that operators shall not use the Internet, big data, algorithms and other technical means to interfere with the normal operation of network products or services legally provided by other operators by influencing users' choice or other means to conduct traffic hijacking, interference, malicious incompatibility and other acts.
It is worth mentioning that the Regulations also highlight the responsibility of platform subjects, urge platform enterprises to strengthen the standardized management of competition behaviors within the platform, and regulate the abuse of data algorithms to gain competitive advantages.
The life of law lies in its implementation. Next, the market supervision departments at all levels will guide all kinds of business entities to accurately understand the main contents of the Regulations, enhance the awareness of legal and compliance operations, improve the construction of the compliance system, and timely adjust business behavior. At the same time, grassroots market supervision and law enforcement personnel should also adapt to the new requirements of the digital economy era, focus on improving the level of administrative law enforcement, and help the high-quality development of the digital economy and the construction of a unified national market with high-quality and efficient anti unfair competition supervision and law enforcement.
