Photo:VCG

China's State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) held China's first Anti-Unfair Competition Forum on Thursday, which discussed hot issues such as unfair competition and brand protection in the digital economy, said the SAMR's official website. 

China has developed into the world's second-largest economy, but there are still a lot of remaining challenges in order to deal with the issue of unfair competition, Gan Lin, vice director of the SAMR, said at the forum, adding that the challenges include the lack of deeply rooted consciousness of fair competition among the public. Also, the legal system needs to be improved, and the concept of supervision should be updated.

The SAMR will comprehensively strengthen the anti-unfair competition work and strive to make breakthroughs in strengthening coordination, enhancing supervision and law enforcement, and ramping up the development of laws, said Gan. 

State authorities investigated 7,371 cases of unfair competition in 2020, imposing fines of $65.15 million. A total of 1,345 unfair competition cases were investigated from Jan to May this year, with fines of $19.11 million handed out. 

In April, the SAMR handed out a record $2.8 billion fine for Alibaba over the company's forced exclusivity arrangements, or agreements that forced vendors to "choose one out of two (platforms)."

Global Times