Top court pledges punishment of unfair competition, monopoly in high-tech fields

BEIJING -- China's Supreme People's Court has issued a judicial document on better regulating unfair competition and monopolistic practices among high-tech enterprises, pledging punishment for predatory pricing and forced bundling in relevant fields.

Measures also include punishment for other practices that undermine fair competition and disrupt market order, such as big data-based price discrimination and forcing consumers to choose between competing platforms, the SPC said in a statement on Monday.

The document, with 98 measures on high-quality judicial service to protect scientific and technological innovations, is meant to guide the platform economy toward greater openness, innovation and empowerment, and boost the building of a unified national market, according to the SPC statement.

The document also includes judicial measures for the proper implementation of stipulations in the anti-unfair competition law to encourage fair, honest, and orderly competition.

It further outlines efforts to strengthen judicial protection for technological innovation-related entities, ensure adequate and timely protection for innovation and better apply application of punitive damages for violators.

The top court also published eight typical cases regarding relevant work, covering sectors such as biomedicine, chip, algorithms, data, lithium batteries, renewable energy, and the internet.