China's Market Regulator to Focus Antitrust Enforcement on APIs, Utilities, Platform Economy

Beijing, September 20 — At a press conference held by the State Council Information Office, Shu Wei, spokesperson and deputy director of the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR), stated that the administration is comprehensively employing tools such as price enforcement, quality supervision, and standard-setting to effectively combat malicious low pricing and disorderly competition.

Fair Competition Review System Established

Wang Guowei, director of the Planning and Finance Department of SAMR, announced that the administration has established a fair competition review system. He emphasized that antitrust enforcement should be more focused on active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and that investment and merger activities should be promoted in a lawful and orderly manner.

Wang noted that, from the perspective of the market supervision department's functions, it is essential to strengthen fair competition review and uphold the fundamental role of competition policy. SAMR stresses that competition policy should serve as the underlying, basic rule within all economic policy systems. Various industrial, investment, fiscal, and tax policies must be premised on maintaining fair competition. Any policy measures involving the economic activities of business operators must be assessed for their impact on fair competition to prevent the artificial creation of market barriers.

At the same time, Wang said, the quality and effectiveness of antitrust enforcement must be continuously improved, and local protectionism and market segmentation must be resolutely eliminated. Risk alerts regarding improper market intervention behaviors should be issued on a regular basis, and enforcement efforts against the abuse of administrative power to exclude or restrict competition should be intensified. The capacity and efficiency of reviewing business concentrations should be enhanced to promote lawful and orderly investment and merger activities. With antitrust enforcement already strong and intensive, SAMR will place greater emphasis on monitoring and early warning of monopoly risks, taking measures such as compliance guidance, administrative guidance, and warning interviews at an earlier stage to effectively prevent monopolistic behaviors before they occur.

Unified Market Rules to Ensure Smooth Flow of Resources

Wang Guowei stated that unified market rules and regulations are needed to ensure the smooth flow of resources and factors. SAMR will accelerate the improvement of unified rules for enterprise establishment, relocation, and deregistration at the market access stage to safeguard the operational autonomy of enterprises. At the production and operation stage, it will speed up the improvement of the national standards system to ensure better coordination and alignment of various standards. At the circulation and consumption stage, SAMR will focus on improving the regulatory rules for online trading markets to achieve integrated online and offline oversight.

Comprehensive Crackdown on "Involution-Style" Competition

Shu Wei stated that during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period (2026–2030), SAMR will focus on the following three areas to accelerate the shift of market competition from "competing on price" to "competing on quality" along a healthy trajectory:

1. Strengthening Price Enforcement

• SAMR will accelerate the revision of the Price Law and study amendments to the Provisions on Curbing Low-Price Dumping.
• For enterprises that take the lead in engaging in malicious low-price competition and disrupting production and operation order, cost investigations and price inspections will be conducted, and strict penalties will be imposed in accordance with the law.
• SAMR will promote the implementation of the Rules on Price Conduct for Internet Platforms to continuously regulate price competition in the platform economy.
• It will also study and formulate the Interim Provisions on the Implementation of the Price Supervisor System to reinforce enterprises' primary responsibility for price compliance.

2. Strengthening Quality Supervision

• SAMR will further strengthen source management by optimizing the management of industrial product production licenses and dynamically adjusting the compulsory product certification catalog to ensure quality access for products.
• At the same time, it will enhance quality risk monitoring and random inspections, increasing the frequency of inspections for products with abnormally low prices, high safety risks, and historically low pass rates. The proportion of random inspections in key areas such as e-commerce platforms and wholesale markets will be raised.
• SAMR will improve the consistency of online and offline supervision and accelerate the establishment of a unified national product quality and safety traceability system. It will also reinforce the primary responsibilities of platform enterprises in areas such as product information verification and cooperation with recalls.
• A special campaign will be launched to address quality and safety issues in industrial products sold online, and illegal activities in online product sales will be severely cracked down upon.

3. Strengthening Anti-Unfair Competition Enforcement

• SAMR will thoroughly implement the newly revised Anti-Unfair Competition Law and continuously improve supporting regulatory rules.
• Special law enforcement actions against unfair competition will be deployed on a regular basis, focusing on key issues such as false advertising, mutual defamation, commercial slander, and commercial bribery. A number of typical cases will be investigated and dealt with in accordance with the law.
• The protection of trade secrets will be strengthened. SAMR will explore and introduce local regulations and management norms for trade secret protection based on local conditions, and actively promote pilot projects and service stations for trade secret protection innovation.

(Source: China Securities Journal)