On 10 Mar. 2023, China’s State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) issued the amended Provisions on Prohibiting Abuse of Dominant Market Positions (hereinafter the “Provisions”, 禁止濫用市場支配地位行為規定).
This amendment comes only one year after China amended the Provisions in March 2022.
According to the Provisions, “dominant market position” means a market position that an operator may control the prices, volumes, or other transaction conditions of commodities in a relevant market, or can obstruct or affect other operators from entering into the relevant market.
The amendment mainly regulates the monopoly of Internet platforms. Among others, the following new elements are noteworthy.
- Operators with dominant market positions shall not utilize data, algorithms, technologies, platform rules, etc., to conduct acts of abusing their dominant market positions.
- Operators with dominant market positions shall be prohibited from offering differentiated treatments in terms of transaction conditions to transaction counterparties with the same conditions without justified reasons.
- Operators with dominant market positions shall be prohibited from conducting tie-in sales of commodities without justified reasons or restricting other unreasonable transaction conditions in transactions, involving conducting tie-in sales or combined sale of different commodities in violation of transaction practices and consumption habits or disregard of the functions of commodities by utilizing contract terms or pop-ups or taking necessary steps and other methods making it difficult for counterparties to choose, modify or refuse.
Cover Photo by Vincent Lin on Unsplash
Contributors: CJO Staff Contributors Team
