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Interpretation of ten highlights of platform economy antitrust guidelines

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On 10 November, the Anti-Monopoly Bureau of the State Administration for Market Regulation (“SAMR”)issued the Antitrust Guidelines for the Platform Economic Industry (draft for comments) (“PlatformGuidelines”). The release of these important guidelines at the time of 11 November signals that SAMR will continue to strengthen its antitrust enforcement in the Internet platform sector. The Platform Guidelines consists of six Chapter with 24 articles, and it was drafted under the basic system and analytical framework of the Anti-monopoly Law (“AML”). The Platform Guidelines into account the characteristics of the platform/Internet economy and gives specified guidance regarding monopoly agreement, abuse of dominance, concentration of undertakings and other areas of concern in the context of platform/Internet economy. The issuance of the Platform Guidelines will undoubtedly provide better guidance for antitrust enforcement in the platform economy and provide guidance for companies to observe. In this article, we highlight ten noteworthy areas of the guidelines.