Prudence required regarding regulating of platform economy

THE NATIONAL INDUSTRIAL INFORMATION SECURITY DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH CENTER under the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology recently held a seminar in Beijing on internet platform competition law issues. China Youth Daily comments:

The rapid development of the internet economy in recent years has produced some huge internet platform enterprises, which has resulted in many new issues in the antitrust field.

As an important document guiding and standardizing the economic development of the platforms, the "Guiding Opinions on Promoting the Healthy Development of Platform Economy and Standardization" advances making internet trade supervision regulations and dealing with monopoly-related violations according to the laws and regulations to guarantee that all players in the platform economy can participate equally in market competition.

The Guiding Opinions issued by the State Council, China's Cabinet, propose formulating relevant regulations on the supervision and management of online transactions, investigating and dealing with illegal activities such as restricting transactions and unfair competition by means of abusing market dominance. The opinions are very targeted and very necessary. Abuse of market dominance is a very serious economic and legal issue. However, in reality, the problem is often misunderstood.

The so-called exclusive trade refers to e-commerce platforms requiring their business partners to trade with only one platform. If the exclusive trade is a consensual business contract in accordance with relevant laws and regulations, there's no need to criticize it as monopoly, because any party could end the cooperation according to the law and contract if it changes its mind or finds a better partner.

The main characteristic of the platform economy is the continuous innovation in products, business model and industrial form, which means no enterprise will be able to permanently control the market. Therefore, the authorities should be prudent when dealing with monopolies in this field.

As a significant document to lead and regulate the development of the platform economy, the guidance holds an "inclusive and prudent" attitude toward possible monopoly issues of internet platform enterprises. It shows determination to maintain a fair and competitive market order, and it does not promote overly strict measures that might undermine the development of platform economy.