China's State Administration for Market Regulation. Photo: VCG

China's State Administration for Market Regulation released guidelines on antitrust compliance for internet platforms on Friday, a move aims to further support and guide internet platform operators in effectively preventing antitrust compliance risks and to promote innovation and the healthy development of the platform economy.

The release of the guidelines is well-timed, translating key provisions of the Anti-Monopoly Law into clear behavioral boundaries and resolving long-standing compliance uncertainties for internet platforms, an industry analyst said.

Taking into account the characteristics of the platform economy, business models, and patterns of competition, the guidelines identify new types of monopoly risks across eight scenarios, including algorithmic collusion between platforms, organizing or assisting on-platform operators to reach monopoly agreements, unfairly high pricing by platforms, below-cost selling, blocking and restricting access and discriminatory treatment by platforms.

The guidelines also provide platform operators with practical and actionable recommendations for strengthening antitrust compliance management.

The guidelines focus on four types of monopoly risks: monopoly agreements, abuse of market dominance, concentrations of operators and abuse of administrative power to exclude or restrict competition, the CCTV News reported, noting that they delineate clear and explicit "red lines" for platform operators.

The release of the guidelines comes at the right time as it addresses many long-standing compliance uncertainties faced by internet platforms, Liu Dingding, an industry veteran, told the Global Times on Friday, noting that in the past, many platforms were not unwilling to comply, but rather unclear about the specific boundaries of monopolistic conduct, such as whether algorithm-based coordinated pricing constitutes a monopoly.

"These gray areas have made it easy for platforms to inadvertently cross compliance lines," Liu said.

On a further note, Liu said that the guidelines encourage platforms to abandon short-term profit-driven monopolistic behavior and focus their efforts on technological innovation and service optimization. 

"It is expected that more platforms will proactively review and rectify their practices in accordance with the guidelines, improving their compliance management systems — an approach that is crucial for their long-term development and enhancing core competitiveness," the expert said.

Global Times