China has released new draft antimonopoly rules for its online platforms, signaling an increased appetite by Beijing authorities to rein in its dominant technology companies, reported the Wall Street Journal.
China’s State Administration for Market Regulation said on Tuesday that it would seek feedback on rules covering a host of potential anti-monopolistic practices on the country’s digital platforms, including offering different prices to different consumers for the same product, said the WSJ.
“Regulators are sending a message to online platforms to behave themselves,” said He Jing, a lawyer at Beijing-based GEN Law Firm, who said the draft rules were likely meant to help advance a recent push from China’s top leaders to encourage domestic consumption over the next five years.
Achieving that goal might have prompted regulators to clean up the online market and ensure that the competitive landscape was fairer and consumers better protected, He said.