At present, the focus issues such as swiping orders and speculation, praise and cashback, and affecting user choice that infringe on the rights and interests of consumers in online consumption in mainland China have been frequently criticized. Reverse order swiping, illegal data acquisition and other behaviors also continue to disrupt the market order.
Recently, the State Administration for Market Regulation issued the "Interim Provisions on Online Anti-Unfair Competition", which consists of five chapters and 43 articles, of which a total of 20 articles are refined and sorted out by category in the "online unfair competition acts" part, clarifying the identification criteria.
What is unfair competition in the Internet field? What are the regulations on behaviors that are closely related to consumer rights? Here's a quick look.
Network obfuscation
The sword refers to the imitation of the cottage and the high imitation of the stream
Online false propaganda
The sword refers to swiping orders and speculation, and praise cashback
Online bribery
Define the scope of finance
Based on the virtuality, dynamics and immediacy of network business activities, a large number of new types of unfair competition behaviors that were not foreseen in the original legislation have emerged in mainland China's network competition.
The Provisions add a large number of provisions that actually occur but lack corresponding regulations in the current law in terms of online confusion, online false publicity, online bribery, and online defamation of goodwill.
Among them, for online bribery, the "Provisions" make it clear that business operators shall not use property or other means to bribe platform staff, units or individuals that have an impact on transactions, in order to seek trading opportunities or competitive advantages in traffic, ranking, post services, etc. "Property" as used in the preceding paragraph includes cash, items, online virtual property, gift certificates, funds, shares, debt forgiveness, and other property rights and interests.
The Internet defames goodwill
The sword refers to the reverse swiping
The use of technical means to hinder and undermine market order
The sword is aimed at traffic hijacking, influencing user choices, etc
A large proportion of the new types of online unfair competition are business operators using data, algorithms, and other technical means to carry out acts such as traffic hijacking, interference, and malicious incompatibility by influencing user choices or other means, and obstructing or destroying the normal operation of network products or services lawfully provided by other business operators.
From Article 12 to Article 26, the Provisions elaborate and improve the provisions on the use of technical means to carry out acts of unfair competition on the Internet, so as to effectively safeguard fair competition in the market. Listing traffic hijacking behaviors such as setting up and inserting links or forcing target jumps without the consent of other business operators, behaviors that affect user choices such as violating users' wishes and right to choose, increasing operational complexity, and undermining the consistency of use, and interfering with other business operators' lawful provision of network products such as interception, closure, uninstallation, or operation, or implementation of search demotion rights, reverse order swiping, and malicious incompatibility are listed as new types of unfair competition behaviors, which greatly fill the legal gaps and regulatory blind spots, and are of great significance for maintaining the order of fair online competition.
Copywriter: Wang Ying
Design: Feng Wenya
Final review: Chen Jingchao
Source: Official website of the State Administration for Market Regulation