On May 11, the State Administration for Market Regulation issued the Interim Provisions on Online Anti-Unfair Competition, which came into force on September 1.
The Provisions comprehensively sort out and enumerate all kinds of unfair competition acts, including e-commerce and non-e-commerce platforms, involving unfair competition behaviors such as reverse order swiping, store bombing, refusal to receive goods after placing a large number of orders, malicious interception, etc., and clarify the applicable provisions of the law.
The platform bears the main responsibility
According to the State Administration for Market Regulation, according to the complex and changeable characteristics of online competition, the "Provisions" classify, refine and sort out online unfair competition behaviors, and clarify the identification standards. Focus on eliminating regulatory blind spots.
In addition, the specific manifestations and identification factors of traffic hijacking, malicious interference, and malicious incompatibility are also listed. In particular, it regulates new types of unfair competition through the use of technical means, such as reverse order farming, illegal data acquisition, and discriminatory treatment. At the same time, a catch-all clause is set up to provide a regulatory basis for new problems and new behaviors that may arise.
Yibao.com has learned that in the fierce competition in the e-commerce market, many operators are still desperate to take risks. In the express delivery industry, in order to complete the business volume assessment, in recent years, it is not uncommon to brush orders, and the headquarters has also turned a blind eye, resulting in false increments and false prosperity on the Internet.
Whether it is for e-commerce platforms or express delivery companies, by cracking down on false propaganda and speculation, it can maintain fair competition in the market, prevent bad money from driving out good money, and protect consumers' right to choose and know.
Article 16 of the "Provisions" mentions that operators shall not use technical means to directly, organize or carry out the following acts through a third party: including deliberately engaging in large-scale and high-frequency transactions with other operators in a short period of time, or giving good reviews;
With regard to the issue of big data killing, which is strongly resented by consumers, Article 12 of the Provisions points out that business operators shall not use the Internet, big data, algorithms and other technical means to carry out traffic hijacking, interference, malicious incompatibility and other acts by influencing user choices or other means, so as to obstruct or destroy the normal operation of network products or services lawfully provided by other business operators.
According to the State Administration for Market Regulation, platform enterprises have access to massive amounts of data and connect a large number of entities, which is not only a key object of online unfair competition supervision, but also a key node of collaborative supervision. Urge platform enterprises to strengthen the regulation and management of competitive conduct within the platform.
All kinds of platforms are prohibited from "choosing one of the two"
Article 24 of the "Provisions" stipulates that platform operators shall not use service agreements, transaction rules and other means to impose unreasonable restrictions on the price of goods, sales objects, sales areas or sales time.
Yibao.com found that it is worth noting that the State Administration for Market Regulation has clarified that specific provisions such as prohibiting forcing operators on the platform to "choose one of two" and prohibiting unreasonable fees to operators on the platform are equally applicable to non-e-commerce platforms, including social networking, short video, communication, travel and other platform operators are required to carry out compliance self-inspections in the above areas to avoid violating the law.
Operators must not use the following methods to conduct marketing with respect to false publicity and fictitious transaction volume, transaction volume, reservation volume, and other data and information related to operations, including false claims of spots, fictitious reservations, and false rush purchases; fabricating user reviews; Use cashbacks, red envelopes, card coupons, etc., to induce users to make interactive behaviors such as designated praise, likes, and targeted voting.
Industry insiders pointed out that "pinching mergers and acquisitions", blocking links without legitimate reasons, "choosing one of the two", big data killing, traffic hijacking and other competitive disorderly behaviors are typical zero-sum games or even negative-sum games, which will not only encroach on the opportunities and achievements of fair competition of other operators, but also damage the legitimate rights and interests of consumers such as the right to know, the right to make independent choices, and the right to privacy.
Previously, in the Draft Amendment to the Anti-Unfair Competition Law (Draft for Comments), for acts such as forcing "one of two choices", "restricting traffic, searching and demoting, removing from the shelves", "traffic hijacking", etc., if the circumstances are particularly serious, the illegal gains will be confiscated, and the person responsible for the unfair competition will also face a fine of 10-1 million yuan.
After the issuance of the "Provisions", the market supervision department may take online anti-unfair competition as the focus of recent law enforcement work, and relevant platform enterprises should promptly rectify and implement compliance requirements when they find risks.