The anti-monopoly law (Revised Draft) was officially promulgated and solicited opinions from the public; the state Anti-monopoly Bureau was established; the regulatory authorities frequently issued anti-monopoly "top" fines... 2021 is the beginning of the 14th five year plan and the "great year" of anti-monopoly work. The highlights of anti-monopoly and anti unfair competition continue, effectively maintaining the order of fair competition in the market. The central economic work conference stressed the need to boost the confidence of market players, deeply promote the implementation of fair competition policy, strengthen anti-monopoly and anti unfair competition, and ensure fair competition with fair supervision. We should set up "traffic lights" for capital, strengthen the effective supervision of capital according to law, and prevent the barbaric growth of capital. Industry experts said that in 2022, the strong regulatory signal will continue, the antitrust regulatory framework is expected to be more perfect, the antitrust sword in key areas such as platform economy, scientific and technological innovation, information security and people's livelihood security will be hanging high, and the supervision and law enforcement will be further strengthened to create a better competitive environment for all kinds of market players to invest and start business and standardize and healthy development. Antitrust "big year" has achieved remarkable results On December 7, the Beijing antitrust compliance guidelines in the field of platform economy (2021 version) was officially released. It responded positively to the business forms and competitive behaviors in the Internet fields such as "one out of two" and "big data killing". This is the epitome of China's improvement of the fair competition system. The outline of the 14th five year plan emphasizes strengthening the basic position of competition policy, and "antitrust" has become a high-frequency word. The anti-monopoly work conference of the national market supervision system stressed that 2021 is the beginning of the 14th five year plan and the "great year" of anti-monopoly work. In this year, the central government frequently released signals to strengthen anti-monopoly: the ninth meeting of the central financial and Economic Commission stressed "promoting the healthy and sustainable development of standardized platform economy", "promoting fair competition, opposing monopoly and preventing disorderly expansion of capital"; The 34th collective study of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee emphasized "preventing platform monopoly and disorderly expansion of capital, and investigating and dealing with monopoly and unfair competition according to law"; The 21st Meeting of the central Shenzhen Reform Commission deliberated and adopted the opinions on strengthening antitrust and further promoting the implementation of fair competition policy This year, great breakthroughs were made in the construction of anti-monopoly system and mechanism. On November 18, the state Anti Monopoly Bureau was officially established to further enrich the anti-monopoly supervision force, improve the unity and authority of anti-monopoly law enforcement, and usher in a new pattern of anti-monopoly supervision. On November 22, the anti-monopoly law (Revised Draft) ended for comments. This is the first "overhaul" of the anti-monopoly law implemented for 13 years. It not only encourages innovation and strengthens the basic position of competition policy, but also responds to the new challenges posed by the development of digital economy. "In 2021, China's competition policy and anti-monopoly achieved achievements in top-level design, system construction, system and mechanism, which is an extraordinary year in the historical process of China's competition policy and anti-monopoly law." Huang Yong, member of the expert advisory group of the anti monopoly Commission of the State Council and director of the competition law center of the University of foreign economic relations and trade, told the economic reference daily. He believes that with the strengthening of anti-monopoly law enforcement, it can be expected that anti-monopoly law enforcement will be more normalized and professional in 2022, so as to better ensure fair competition in the market. Supervision and law enforcement falling "heavy hammer" Nanjing ningwei Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. abused its dominant position in the market and carried out the monopoly behavior of selling phosphoryl chloride at an unfair high price and attaching unreasonable trading conditions, with a fine of more than 6.58 million yuan; Yixing Ganghua Gas Co., Ltd. abused its dominant position in the market, charged high heating capacity increase fees to resident users, charged unfair high prices for gas pipeline installation projects for non resident users, and was fined a total of 40.44 million yuan... On November 18, the State Administration of Market Supervision issued several administrative punishment decisions, pointing to the pharmaceutical field, energy field, etc. On November 20, the General Administration of market supervision reported 43 cases of concentration of business operators that failed to declare illegal implementation according to law. In addition to many Internet enterprises being punished, banks, insurance and chemical companies also appeared in the punishment list. In 2021, antitrust continued to fall "heavy hammer", and relevant punishment cases and punishment scale increased significantly. According to statistics, as of November 20, the number of administrative punishment cases related to monopoly agreements, abuse of market dominant position and business concentration increased significantly to 110, far higher than the average of about 25 in the past five years; The scale of relevant administrative penalties rose significantly to about 22.8 billion yuan, much higher than the average of about 400 million yuan in the past five years. In addition to the platform economy, the field of people's livelihood has attracted particular attention. Recently, the antitrust Commission of the State Council formulated and issued antitrust guidelines on the field of APIs, emphasizing the need to continue to strengthen law enforcement in the field of APIs. The Ministry of transport and other eight departments issued opinions and proposed to strengthen the supervision and law enforcement of anti-monopoly and anti unfair competition. Prevent the disorderly expansion of capital in the field of new transportation formats, and severely investigate and deal with illegal acts such as low-price dumping, "big data ripening" and induced fraud according to law. "In 2021, in addition to the introduction of several guidelines at the legislative level, there are also highlights at the law enforcement and judicial levels." Zhang Chenying, member of the expert advisory group of the anti monopoly Commission of the State Council and director of the competition law research center of the school of law of Tsinghua University, told the reporter of the economic reference daily that the law enforcement of API, platform economy and undeclared monopoly has standardized the business behavior of enterprises. The publication of several typical cases has effectively protected the legitimate rights and interests of operators and consumers. Create a better competitive environment The central economic work conference continued to release strong anti-monopoly regulatory signals. In the view of the industry, the new anti-monopoly law is expected to be issued in 2022, and the anti-monopoly law enforcement in key areas will be further strengthened. Zhang Chenying said that to further promote the implementation of the fair competition policy is to treat all competitors equally and fairly from the perspective of the government; Strengthening anti-monopoly and anti unfair competition is to emphasize maintaining the market environment and market rules of fair competition through legal means from the perspective of market rules; To guarantee fair competition with fair supervision is to clarify that fair supervision is the guarantee to realize fair competition from the perspective of supervision means. "The purpose of setting up 'traffic lights' is to clearly distinguish the boundary between legality and illegality. From the perspective of operators, what is legal can be done, and what is illegal must be stopped; from the perspective of regulators, it is necessary to supervise according to law, and illegal business activities must be prohibited. The' laws' here include anti-monopoly law, anti unfair competition law, etc." Zhang Chenying said. Huang Yong believes that we should strengthen the basic position of competition policy, optimize the market-oriented, legalized and international business environment, and support and guide the standardized and healthy development of capital. Explore the rule of law scheme for competition policy in key industries and subdivided fields. On the one hand, promote the market-oriented reform of competitive links in energy, railway, telecommunications, public utilities and other industries; On the other hand, improve the system and mechanism construction of supervision, law enforcement, compliance and competition culture cultivation in the field of digital economy. Zhang Gong, director of the State Administration of market supervision, recently revealed that the next step will be to accelerate the revision of the anti-monopoly law, timely revise the anti unfair competition law, continuously improve the supporting legislation, constantly improve the market access system, the fair competition review mechanism, the fair competition supervision system of the digital economy, and prevent and stop the abuse of administrative power to exclude and restrict competition. We will continue to standardize competition in key areas such as platform economy, scientific and technological innovation, information security and people's livelihood security, and strictly investigate and deal with monopoly agreements, abuse of market dominance and other monopoly acts in accordance with the law. "The new anti-monopoly law is expected to be promulgated, which will play a more important role in maintaining the order of market competition and protecting consumers' rights and interests. China has issued a series of rules in the fields of platforms, algorithms and data, and some of them are in the draft stage. In addition, next year, more obligations will be imposed on key enterprises with disorderly capital development. Focus will be on the number of major anti-monopoly cases in key industries Or further increase. " Zhang Qinyu, director of the Institute of economic law of China University of political science and law, told the economic reference daily. (outlook new era)