Review №8 of Chinese Antitrust News from the Experts of the BRICS Competition Centre
- Competition in the Government Work Report
- Ctrip disables AI assistant that adjusts prices
- Smart monitoring of food safety
- Episode 5 of “Foreign Antitrust Regulation” Series: Japan
Competition in the Government Work Report
From March 3 to 12, the so-called “Two Sessions” are being held in Beijing — parallel meetings of the legislative and advisory bodies. During these meetings, the results of the past year are reviewed and plans for the country’s future development across all areas are approved.
The Government Work Report presented at the Two Sessions also addressed antitrust regulation. In the summary of activities for 2025, particular note was made of significant achievements in combating “involutionary” competition (neijuan). Tasks for 2026 include:
- Strengthening antitrust regulation and efforts against unfair competition; reinforcing the deterrent role of the fair competition review system; and deepening efforts to eliminate “involutionary” competition in order to create favorable market conditions.
- Regulating competition among financial institutions.
- Preparing policy documents to support the private sector; ensuring equal access to factors of production; and protecting fair market competition as well as the lawful rights and interests of market participants.
Various state bodies also reported on their work. The Supreme People’s Court stated that antitrust cases were actively reviewed in 2025, with anti-competitive practices proven in 27 cases. According to the report of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, cases involving damage to commercial reputation, coercion into transactions, and related offenses were brought against 9,797 individuals, and 157 public-interest lawsuits were also handled.
Sources: Gov.cn, WeChat 1, WeChat 2
Ctrip disables AI assistant that adjusts prices
The Chinese online travel booking platform Ctrip announced that it has disabled its AI price-adjustment feature. Such AI assistants are used by nearly all online booking platforms. Ctrip is the first to deactivate it and did so on its own initiative, without a requirement from regulators.
The AI assistant automatically raised or lowered prices depending on market conditions. While this maximized the platform’s profits, it clearly interfered with natural price formation, stimulating excessive and unjustified competition among accommodation providers.
Ctrip stated that although the tool is widely used in the industry, it no longer aligns with the sector’s demand for high-quality development. At the same time, the platform noted that not all accommodation providers have the resources to fully monitor price dynamics, and disabling the feature will inevitably affect their operational efficiency. To address this, Ctrip will launch the “Operations Navigator” and “Data Center” programs, allowing suppliers that need assistance to rely on their statistical data.
Smart monitoring of food safety
With the introduction of artificial intelligence tools, regulators are gaining new opportunities to ensure the quality and safety of food products. In particular, the “Internet + Open Kitchen” system is gradually being introduced across China. Under this system, restaurants livestream their kitchens online, allowing customers to monitor the preparation of their orders in real time. The system is also being integrated with smart supervision platforms operated by provincial market regulators.
A nationwide intelligent food safety supervision platform is currently under accelerated development. Meanwhile, the SAMR smart command and dispatch center is already operational: using big data and artificial intelligence, it conducts risk assessments for more than one million food industry enterprises.
Source: SAMR
Episode 5 of “Foreign Antitrust Regulation” Series: Japan
SAMR has launched a series of infographics describing antitrust legislation and the structure of competition regulation systems in other jurisdictions. The fifth publication focuses on Japan, outlining key applicable laws, thresholds for filing merger control notifications, and potential anti-competitive violations.
The first issue covered U.S. antitrust law, the second the European Union, the third the United Kingdom, and the fourth South Korea.
Source: China Anti-Monopoly
