China launched new anti-monopoly protocols on Sunday with the aim of cracking down on the country’s tech giants, Reuters reports. The guidelines, which finalize legislation originally drafted in November, aim to “stop monopolistic behavior in the platform economy and protect fair market competition,” according to the State Administration of Market Regulation in China.
These rules would prohibit China’s top technology giants, such as Alibaba Group and Tencent Holdings, from engaging in a series of long-standing practices in the market. Some of them include forcing merchants to choose among the country’s largest internet providers, inhibiting technological innovation, manipulating the market using data and algorithms and fixing prices, according to Reuters.
These practices have not been verified for a long time due to the government’s direct approach to the commercial side of the Internet, but they have been the subject of a closer examination in recent months. Namely, Chinese regulators launched an antitrust investigation at Alibaba Group in December about the alleged anti-competitive practices of the e-commerce giant.
However, it has been an uphill battle so far. In a question and answer session released along with its new protocols, China’s market regulator noted that it was struggling to enforce regulations and comprehensive reform.
“The behavior is more hidden, the use of data, algorithms, platform rules and so on makes it more difficult to discover and determine what monopoly agreements are,” he told Reuters.
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But these guidelines certainly seems a promising first step towards resolving the question.
[Reuters]