The Connection Between E-Commerce Law and Laws About Competition: System Logic and Future Enforcement

The Connection Between E-Commerce Law and Laws About Competition: System Logic and Future Enforcement By Zhu Li, Zeng Youlin (Intellectual Property Courts)¹

The E-Commerce Law of the People’s Republic of China (hereinafter “the E-Commerce Law”) has been enforced since January 1, 2019. It has been the center of attention as early as the beginning of drafting, which took five years with four rounds of deliberation and three rounds of public solicitation for comments to finalize.² Unfortunately, the competition clauses in the E-Commerce Law have gained little notice, nor have they been carefully discussed. In fact, the competition regulations in the E-commerce Law are closely related to the Anti-Unfair Competition Law of the People’s Republic of China (hereinafter “the Anti-Unfair Competition Law”) and the Anti-Monopoly Law of the People’s Republic of China (hereinafter “the Anti-Monopoly Law”), which affects the logic system of competition laws. The E-Commerce Law sets up supplementary regulations connected with the competition laws through the prohibition of misleading business advertising and abuse of market dominance. It also sets up independent regulations beyond the competition laws through prohibition of tying or imposing unreasonable trading conditions. These supplementary and independent regulations profoundly change the logic system of the competition laws, which would exert a great influence on competition enforcement in the environment of cyberspac