On 11 May 2024, China’s State Administration for Market Regulation issued the “Interim Provisions on Anti-Unfair Competition on the Internet” (网络反不正当竞争暂行规定, hereinafter referred to as the “Interim Provisions”), which will come into force on 1 Sept. 2024.
The Interim Provisions, focusing on unfair competition in the digital platform economy (including new issues such as fabricated reviews and illegal data scarping), aims to encourage innovation, regulate competition, protect the legitimate rights and interests of operators and consumers, and promote sustainable development of the digital economy.
The Interim Provisions comprises 43 articles in 5 chapters: General Provisions, Acts of Unfair Competition in the Internet Industry, Supervision and Inspection, Legal Liabilities, and Supplementary Provisions.
The highlights of the Interim Provisions are as follows:
- Operators shall not use technical means (e.g. the Internet, big data, and algorithms) to interfere with users’ choices or otherwise, thereby impeding or sabotaging the normal operation of any online product or service lawfully provided by other operators. Specifically, operators shall not take any of the following actions:
(a) inserting a link or forcing a URL redirection in other operators’ internet products or services without their consent;
(b) misleading, tricking or forcing users to modify, shut down, or uninstall other operators’ internet products or services; or
(c) maliciously causing incompatibility with other operators’ internet products or services.
- Operators shall not induce users into making certain favorable comments by means of cash rebates or rewards, nor shall operators make false or misleading commercial advertisements about the producers, operators, sales, transaction information, business data, user evaluations, etc. of the commodities in order to deceive or mislead consumers or the relevant public.
- The dominant platform operator shall not, without justifiable reasons, utilize technical means to abuse management rules and information advantages such as back-end transaction data and Specifically, the dominant platform operator shall not block third-party business information or improperly interfere with the order of commodity display, thereby impeding or sabotaging the normal operation of any online product or service lawfully provided by other operators and disturbing the order of fair competition in the market.
Contributors: CJO Staff Contributors Team
