On November 10, 2020, the State Administration of Market Supervision (SAMR) of China announced the “Guidelines for Anti-monopoly in the Field of Platform Economy (Draft for Solicitation of Comments)”( 关于平台经济领域的反垄断指南(征求意见稿)). The purpose of this guide is to prevent and stop the monopoly of Internet platforms.
Chinese Internet giants, such as Alibaba, Tencent, Meituan, etc., are all targets of this guide.
The guide stated: (1) Antitrust laws apply to the platforms of Internet giants, and antitrust regulators will supervise Internet giants. (2) Anti-monopoly supervision will be based on protecting the rights of operators and consumers within the platform.
SAMR is soliciting comments from the public on the draft guidelines, after which it will issue an official version.