On March 23, the Beijing Municipal Administration for Market Regulation, together with the Municipal Bureau of Commerce and the Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism, held regulatory talks with and issued administrative guidance to 12 platform companies, including Trip.com, Qunar, Amap, JD.com, Taobao Flash Sale, Meituan, Fliggy, Tongcheng Travel, Tujia, Xiaozhu, Douyin, and Kuaishou.
The authorities also disclosed the first batch of problems identified since launching a broader campaign against “involution-style” competition on online platforms, and put forward rectification requirements.
The issues highlighted in this notice mainly fall into four categories:
* Infringement of merchants’ operational autonomy
Some platforms, without merchants’ consent, modified backend settings to enroll them in promotional activities, or used technical means to monitor pricing and require merchants to offer the lowest price across the internet, undermining their pricing autonomy. These practices not only cause business losses for merchants, but may also create risks to product and service quality.
* Unreasonable platform rules
Some platforms, by leveraging their dominant position, have imposed unfair rules and use penalties such as fines or traffic restrictions, increasing merchants’ operational burden.
* False advertising
Some platforms used misleading or false promotional practices to induce consumers to make purchases, infringing on their legitimate rights and interests.
* Weaknesses in compliance management systems
Some platforms have compliance management structures that exist in name only, with unclear responsibilities and mechanisms that fail to function effectively in practice.
