China on Sunday unveiled the official version of the rules intended to eradicate monopolistic practices in the Internet industry, after first soliciting feedback on the draft guidelines since November last year.
The According to a statement from the State Administration for Market Regulation, the country’s antitrust watchdog, the rules will take effect immediately.
The regulations will curb anti-competitive behavior, such as sharing sensitive consumer data, forming alliances that squeeze out smaller rivals, and subsidizing below-cost services to knock out competitors, the regulator said.
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China’s Politburo, the Communist Party’s highest decision-making body, swore in one meeting late last year to strengthen anti-monopoly efforts in 2021. Less than two weeks after the meeting, China started a investigation Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. for alleged monopolistic practices.
Companies have filed lawsuits over competition issues even as regulators step up scrutiny. ByteDance Ltd. has filed a lawsuit last week against Tencent Holdings Ltd. over alleged monopolies in its WeChat and QQ platforms, escalating a feud between two giants of Chinese social media. A Beijing court has agreed to hear the case, a ByteDance representative confirmed Sunday.
– With help from Jessica Sui, Zheping Huang and Coco Liu