The Anti-Unfair Competition Law of the People's Republic of China (Draft Amendment) was released

The State Administration for Market Regulation of the People's Republic of China is soliciting public opinions on the Anti-Unfair Competition Law of the People's Republic of China (Draft Amendment) (hereinafter referred to as the Draft). It aims to create a market environment for fair competition, safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of operators and consumers and the public interest, effectively solve prominent problems in regulatory practices, and accelerate the improvement of the legal system against unfair competition.

The Anti-Unfair Competition Law, which came into force in 1993 and had been amended twice in 2017 and 2019, plays a very important role in regulating market competition. The State Administration for Market Regulation launched the revision of the Anti-Unfair Competition Law in December 2021, and set up a leading group for the revision of the Law to carry out coordinated and in-depth research.

In light of the characteristics of competition in the digital economy, the revised Draft provides detailed rules on new types of unfair competition on the Internet, such as unfair competition in data acquisition and use, unfair competition in the use of algorithms, and obstruction of open sharing. At the same time, considering the complexity of the identification of unfair competition acts in the field of digital economy, the consideration factors for determining whether they constitute unfair competition acts are specified to enhance the predictability of the system and the standardization of law enforcement.

The main contents of this revision are as follows:
(1) improve the rules on anti-unfair competition in the digital economy, and regulate and control behaviors that disrupt competition order in the development of the new economy, new forms of business and new models;
(2) in view of the prominent problems existing in the practice of supervision and law enforcement, the existing manifestations of unfair competition should be supplemented and improved;
(3) filling legal gaps and adding new types of unfair competition behavior; and
(4) improving legal liability in accordance with the requirements of strengthening anti-unfair competition.