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China Bans E-commerce Platforms From Forcing Lowest Prices or Abusing Algorithms (scmp.com) 22

Posted by msmash from the drawing-a-line dept.
China has unveiled new rules to rein in aggressive pricing tactics by online platforms, prohibiting e-commerce operators from forcing merchants to offer discounts or setting different prices based on user demographics without consent. The 29-article regulation -- jointly issued over the weekend by the National Development and Reform Commission, State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR), and Cyberspace Administration of China -- lays out detailed compliance requirements that target several long-standing pain points as competition among internet giants has often eroded the rights of both consumers and merchants.

To restore merchant autonomy on pricing, the rules ban platform operators from leveraging their dominant scale to impose "lowest price" agreements. Platforms are prohibited from using traffic throttling, search ranking demotions, or algorithm penalties to pressure merchants into predatory price-cutting or exclusive pricing arrangements.

China Bans E-commerce Platforms From Forcing Lowest Prices or Abusing Algorithms More | Reply

China Bans E-commerce Platforms From Forcing Lowest Prices or Abusing Algorithms

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  • china's figuring it out (Score:5, Insightful)

    by v1 ( 525388 ) on Tuesday December 23, 2025 @09:20AM (#65877203) Homepage Journal

    In some ways China has much better consumer-protection laws than the USA. Big business over there doesn't have nearly as much control over legislation and government operations.

    It's rather ironic that our basis of government, originally intended for personal freedom, has been so heavily leveraged by big business that it can block the majority of common-sense limitations on market control.

    • The US has *business-protection laws, for the most part :-(

    • "personal freedom"

      If you said about Xi in China what you say about Trump, would you be jailed?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

      In some ways China has much better consumer-protection laws than the USA. Big business over there doesn't have nearly as much control over legislation and government operations.

      It's rather ironic that our basis of government, originally intended for personal freedom, has been so heavily leveraged by big business that it can block the majority of common-sense limitations on market control.

      You have to realize that China is doing this to prevent a corporation from getting "too big" for the government. A corpor

      • in China, pro-democracy speech is restricted

        Not really, no. China sees itself as a democracy.

        Maybe you meant to say that pro-union speech is restricted?
        Or outspoken support for Communism?
        Or any criticism of the dear leader?

        If a company gets too big, they might try to use this to pressure teh government into getting its way

        In the US, there's no real need for this

        Indeed.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by sabbede ( 2678435 )
      It's not because the system has been leveraged, it's that getting everyone to agree on new rules is harder than telling people what they will be.

      Basically, you figured out the one upside of a dictatorship.

    • The CCP doesn't want anyone else to utilize a system that isn't part of their social credit system. Don't mistake an even bigger control freak flexing its own muscles as a sign of actual benevolence.

    • That's because on the base level, capitalism is at odds with the interests of the public. Capital has no values other than capital, all it cares about is to make more, and thus has no qualms about doing so at the expense of others. Since the government is there, at least in theory, to protect and benefit the people, capitalism seeks to weaken and capture the government. Left unchecked, it will succeed, because it has all the money in the world to throw at the problem.

      This was well understood in the US back

    • They are better at Capitalism too
  • They are more physical store than online, but this is pretty much both Costco and Walmart's whole business strategy.
    • I feel the main difference is that Costco and Walmart negotiate for lower prices on goods they purchase from distributors or manufacturers compared to E-Stores that only show products on their website instead of buying them to then sell them to consumers.

  • ... can have the occasional advantage, I guess. Not sure if I would want to live in one though.

    • There are eight parties in the central parliament and the central government in Beijing. It hasn't been a single-party system ever since the CCP defeated the KMT in 1949. The CCP has the absolute majority by popular election.

      This is different from countries where a single party rules without the need of having the absolute majority, or even a relative popular majority. In the UK, for example, the ruling party has less than a quarter of all the votes. (And the head of state isn't elected at all.)

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