On June 27, the Standing Committee of the 14th National
People's Congress voted to pass the newly revised Anti-Unfair
Competition Law of the People's Republic of China, which will
come into effect on October 15, 2025. This law, serving as a
fundamental regulation for promoting fair competition,
standardizing market competition order, and maintaining the healthy
operation of the market economy, has undergone significant
development. Since its implementation in 1993, it has been modified
twice in 2017 and 2019, and now the third revision has been
completed.
The newly revised law consists of five chapters: General
Provisions, Unfair Competition Acts, Investigation of Suspected
Unfair Competition Acts, Legal Liability, and Supplementary
Provisions. It stipulates that the state will improve the
anti-unfair competition regulatory system, strengthen law
enforcement and judicial actions, safeguard the market competition
order, and build a unified, open, competitive, and orderly market
system.
This revision is particularly timely in response to the new
developments in the Internet industry, as it directly addresses the
emerging issues of online unfair competition and further refines
the fair competition rules in the digital economy field. For
instance, it newly stipulates that platform operators are
prohibited from forcing or indirectly forcing in-platform operators
to sell goods at prices below cost according to their pricing
rules, so as not to disrupt the market competition order.
In addition, the revised law clarifies the obligations of platform
operators in handling unfair competition behaviors of in-platform
operators. Platform operators are required to clarify the fair
competition rules within the platform in service agreements and
transaction rules, establish a reporting, complaint, and
dispute-handling mechanism for unfair competition, and take
necessary disposal measures in a timely manner when discovering
such behaviors, while also preserving relevant records and
reporting to the supervision and inspection departments as
required.
Moreover, the law has made regulations on unfair competition
behaviors such as infringement of data rights and malicious
transactions, and further elaborated on various manifestations of
malicious transactions in practice. For example, it is specified
that "operators shall not abuse platform rules to directly or
instigate others to conduct false transactions, false evaluations,
or malicious returns against other operators, so as not to damage
the legitimate rights and interests of other operators and disrupt
the market competition order."
This revision of the Anti-Unfair Competition Law is expected to
play a crucial role in promoting fair competition in the market,
protecting the legitimate rights and interests of operators and
consumers, and promoting the high-quality development of the
economy. It provides a more solid legal foundation for businesses
to compete on a level playing field and for the market to operate
in an orderly manner.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
