Chinese E-Commerce Majors To Be Adversely Affected By Draft Rules On Anti-Competitive Behaviour

摘要

The Latest: On November 10 2020, China's market regulator, The State Administration for Market Regulation, released draft rulesthat, for the first time, defines what constitutes anti-competitive behaviour. It covers areas including pricing, payment methods, useof data to target shoppers. The regulator says the laws are aimed at protecting fair competition in the market andsafeguarding consumer's interests. The main anti-competitive areas that the regulators highlight are exclusivity clauses to hindercompetition, treating customers differently based on their spending behaviour and data, and forcing customers to buy a bundle ofproducts in order to access the ones they want. This is the latest development in the sector, after regulatory intervention postponedthe record IPO of the Chinese firm Ant Group (November 2020).