China rolls out new anti-monopoly rules aimed at harnessing big tech

China released new anti-monopoly protocols on Sunday to crack down on the country’s tech giants, Reuters reports. The guidelines, which finalize the bill originally released in November, aim to “stop monopoly behavior in the platform economy and protect fair competition in the market,” according to the Chinese State Administration for Human Rights. market regulation.

The rules would bar major Chinese tech giants such as Alibaba Group and Tencent Holdings from engaging in a host of long-standing practices in the market. Some of them involve forcing merchants to choose from the country’s largest internet providers, inhibiting technological innovation, manipulating the market using data and algorithms, and setting prices, according to Reuters. .

Such practices have long gone unchecked given the government’s hands-off approach to the business side of the Internet, but have come under increased scrutiny in recent months. Namely, Chinese regulators have launched antitrust investigation into Alibaba Group in December on the alleged anti-competitive practices of the e-commerce giant.

However, the battle has been a bit difficult so far. In a question and answer published alongside its new protocols, the Chinese market regulator noted that it was struggling to impose regulations and comprehensive reform.

“The behavior is more hidden, the use of data, algorithms, platform rules, etc., makes it more difficult to discover and determine what monopoly agreements are,” he said. reported by Reuters.

But these guidelines certainly seems to be a promising first step in tackling the problem.

[Reuters]