Review №7 of Chinese Antitrust News from the Experts of the BRICS Competition Centre
- New Requirements for Food Industry Platforms
- Expert Session on Embodied AI at MWC
- Criteria for Platforms Influencing Minors
- Regulatory Trends: Analysis of Typical Cases
- 25 Million New Businesses Created in 2025
New Requirements for Food Industry Platforms
China’s State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) has released two documents setting food safety requirements for food delivery services and food product sellers.
“We want to warn platforms that they cannot simply collect commissions without taking responsibility. Traffic should not take priority over quality. Food delivery platforms must bear primary responsibility for ensuring food safety,” SAMR officials said at a press conference.
The two new regulations aim to address long-standing industry problems, including opaque and unreliable information, the presence of unscrupulous sellers without licenses or qualifications, difficulties in holding online suppliers accountable, and false advertising. They significantly tighten penalties for violations by both platforms and sellers. If a deliberate violation leads to serious consequences, fines may reach up to ten times the company’s revenue from the previous year.
Source: SAMR
Expert Session on Embodied AI at MWC
On March 3 in Barcelona, Spain, an expert session titled “Embodied AI: A New Paradigm for Artificial Intelligence Development” was held on the sidelines of the Mobile World Congress. The event was organized by the Expert Committee on AI of the World Internet Conference в Барселоне (Испания).
Niu Yibing, Deputy Director of the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), addressed the session. He noted that as embodied intelligence develops, AI is moving from the digital world into physical reality. In this context, he said, it is necessary not only to cultivate an open environment that encourages innovation, but also to build a system of collaborative governance to ensure safe development. Such efforts, he added, should support sustainable, inclusive and universally beneficial growth of embodied intelligence, enabling it to empower all industries and benefit human society.
Source: CAC
Criteria for Platforms Influencing Minors
The Cyberspace Administration of China, together with SAMR, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Education and other agencies, has issued Methods for Identifying Internet Platforms Serving a Large Number of Minors and Having Significant Influence on Them.
Platforms serving a large number of minors include those where:
- minors are the main consumers of goods or services and the platform has more than 10 million registered users or over 1 million monthly active users (MAU);
OR
- minors are not the only consumers, but the platform has more than 10 million registered minor users or more than 1 million minor MAU.
To determine whether a platform has a significant influence on minors, regulators recommend considering factors such as:
- a large number of downloads and users, or a high volume of sales and transactions;
- frequent use by minors, long time spent on the platform, or substantial spendingп;
- frequent publication of content aimed at minorsчасто публикуется;
- numerous violations affecting minors recorded on the platform over the past three years, particularly those with serious consequences.
Platforms that meet any of these criteria must regularly assess their operations and report the results to regulators to prevent negative impacts on the health and development of minors.
Source: CAC
Regulatory Trends: Analysis of Typical Cases
SAMR regularly publishes descriptions of typical (most representative) cases to help market participants better understand applicable legislation, regulatory “red lines,” and the regulator’s decision-making logic.
In 2025, 35 lists of such cases were published. Their analysis reveals several key regulatory trends:
- From control to care. The traditional strict model is gradually giving way to a more flexible approach that focuses not only on regulation but also on supporting businesses. For example, regulators often waive fines when a violation is minor or committed for the first time.
- From investigations to problem-solving. Instead of focusing on the number of cases investigated, regulators increasingly emphasize the quality of economic development and whether regulation can support industry modernization and remove barriers to growth.
- From offline to online, from goods to data. Regulation is increasingly extending to innovative and high-tech sectors such as the platform economy, live-stream marketing and access to data.
- From individual enforcement to coordinated regulation. In 2025, cases frequently involved inter-agency cooperation, cross-regional collaboration and coordination between administrative and criminal enforcement.
- Use of technology. Technological tools played a decisive role in detecting violations, collecting evidence and conducting analysis. Big data analytics and cloud technologies were repeatedly used to improve regulatory efficiency and oversight accuracy.
- Priority on social protection. Regulators are increasingly focused on protecting the rights and interests of elderly people and minors, while ensuring stability in socially significant sectors such as clothing, food, housing and transportation markets.
- Combating “involutionary” competition. Authorities are seeking to restore a healthy competitive cycle based on quality, innovation and fairness.
Source: WeChat
25 Million New Businesses Created in 2025
In 2025, China registered 25.7 million new businesses, including 9.5 million companies and 16.2 million sole proprietorships2025. Most new enterprises were linked to promising high-tech sectors such as humanoid robotics, civil aviation and generative artificial intelligence. Demand is also growing for socially oriented products, including goods for the elderly. Over the past year, around 68,000 companies were established in the so-called “silver economy.”
Source: SAMR
