China wants to publish new antitrust rules on tech giants for its country. Over the past decade, different technology companies have grown freely in China under the protection of the local government. This gigantic growth has also had consequences: creating (precisely) tech giants. Now the Chinese government has presented new guidelines to regulate and hold off potential monopolies in the country.
During this Sunday, the State Administration of Market Regulation of China has published the new antitrust guidelines. Guidelines that apply new and greater restrictions for large technology companies. It is about the formalization of a bill presented last November 2020.
While in the rest of the world we have large companies like Apple, Google, Amazon, Facebook and Microsoft … in China they have their own alternatives. Alibaba Group, WeChat or Tencent Holdings are some of these large companies that have taken over different sectors of the Asian market. Online shopping, communications on online platforms or digital payments are some of these sectors.
Among the new measures taken by regulators is to monitor more closely and in greater detail the practices carried out by large companies. These practices include, for example, the prohibition of setting prices, restricting the use of certain technologies or using data to manipulate the market for supply and demand. In general, practices typical of an actor that dominates the market.
Observing tech giants with a magnifying glass
In recent months, China has hardened its interference in the activities of the country’s large companies. A clear proof of this is what happened with Ant Group, a payment service that was born under the wing of Alibaba Group and has become a giant on its own. The company tried to go public with a record public offering of $37 billion. The plan did not go as expected.
In the West things are following a similar route . Tech giants are facing different lawsuits for anti-competitive practices in the United States and Europe. Only during 2020 have we seen cases against Google, Amazon or Facebook. Previously also Apple.
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