Authorities are widening oversight of pricing, subsidies and market regulation.
China's market regulator is intensifying its campaign against so-called “involution-style” competition, tightening oversight of aggressive pricing, digital platforms and local-government measures that may distort market competition. Online platforms, delivery companies and sectors suffering from industrial overcapacity will come under closer scrutiny in the second half of the year. Beijing has made curbing destructive price wars one of its key economic policy priorities for 2026.
According to the State Administration for Market Regulation, or SAMR, the agency deployed 16 special actions in the first half of 2026 across antitrust enforcement, platform governance and market supervision. The regulator is also preparing revised implementation rules for China's fair-competition review system and pushing ahead with revisions to the Price Law, including work on unified industry cost-calculation standards to provide a more concrete basis for identifying unlawful low-price dumping and preventing unrestrained price wars.
Targeting platforms
For digital platforms, the campaign against involution-style competition is likely to mean closer review of subsidy programs, commission structures, algorithmic practices and platform rules. Authorities are already stepping up enforcement. Following investigations involving several major platforms, including Pinduoduo, Meituan and JD.com, regulators imposed combined fines and confiscations totaling 3.6 billion yuan (about $527 million). SAMR also cited Huolala's antitrust compliance rectification, noting that the freight platform changed its pricing algorithms, reduced commission rates and returned 120 million yuan in improperly collected fees to drivers.
Wider toolkit
SAMR is also framing merger control as part of its response to destructive competition. The agency reviewed 52 concentrations in the first half of the year in sectors facing elevated competition risks, including automobiles, solar panels and lithium batteries, and said it supports mergers and corporate restructuring as a means of helping companies move away from involution-style competition.
The campaign extends beyond pricing. Beijing is also using technical standards, product-quality inspections and certification controls to encourage higher-quality production, particularly in e-commerce and consumer goods manufacturing. Under the 2026 national product-quality inspection plan, more than 16,000 product batches will be tested, with goods sold online accounting for 67 percent of sampled product categories.
In addition, SAMR launched a 2026 special enforcement campaign against unfair competition focusing on false advertising, online attacks, smear campaigns and commercial disparagement. During the first half of the year, authorities across China investigated and handled 11,465 unfair-competition cases, including 2,005 involving online false advertising and online commercial disparagement.
Source: MLex
