SAMR looks to shift business focus from 'low-price rivalry' to quality, efficiency

China will make greater use of standards, price enforcement, and quality supervision to curb "involution-style" competition, steering businesses toward improving quality and efficiency, rather than engaging in excessive low-price rivalry, the country's top market regulator said on Sunday.

The State Administration for Market Regulation will combine regulatory tools to tackle disorderly competition and encourage businesses to "put more effort into improving quality and efficiency rather than exhausting themselves in low-price rivalry", Shu Wei, deputy head of the administration, said during a news conference on Sunday.

Platform companies will be a key focus of the regulatory push, with stronger oversight of data, algorithms, traffic allocation, and platform rules, Shu said. Regulators will also press for greater consistency between online and offline oversight, accelerate the development of a nationwide product quality and safety traceability system, and hold platform companies accountable for verifying product information and cooperating with product recalls.

The administration said it will also work to improve rules governing market entry and exit as part of broader efforts to lower institutional transaction costs and improve the business environment.

"The overall goal is that by 2030, China will have fully established a unified, standardized, and efficient system for market entity entry and exit, while the effectiveness of fair competition reviews and enforcement against monopolistic and unfair competition practices will be further strengthened," Shu said.

According to the SAMR, 13 cases involving monopoly agreements or abuse of market dominance in key areas — including the platform economy, pharmaceuticals, and public utilities — were concluded in the first half of this year.

During the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-30), the administration will further implement the revised Anti-Unfair Competition Law, accelerate revisions to the Price Law, and study revisions to provisions on curbing below-cost dumping, while continuing to improve supporting regulatory rules, Shu said. It will also carry out regular special enforcement campaigns targeting false advertising, online attacks against competitors, commercial defamation, and commercial bribery.