
Meituan, Didi Chuxing, and six other sharing economy platforms were summoned by China’s pricing watchdog last week, reported South China Morning Post.
The bureau told on-demand service giant Meituan, Didi Chuxing’s bike-sharing service Didi Bike, Hellobike, and five power bank sharing companies including Nasdaq-listed Energy Monster to increase compliance and make their pricing rules more transparent to build a “sound market price order,” according to a statement on the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR)’s website.
SAMR stated that problems including irregular pricing continue in the sharing economy and gave the companies 30 days to rectify and submit reports on how they’ve addressed pricing issues. While the pricing bureau gave “administrative guidance,” no firm was punished outright.
The lecture marks a rare case of the Price Supervision and Anti-Unfair Competition Bureau, also known as the Office for Regulating Direct Selling and Cracking Down on Pyramid Schemes, summoning China’s Big Tech, according to work logs published on its website which reveal it rarely leads regulatory summons of Big Tech.
The Anti-Monopoly Bureau and the Department of Online Transaction Regulation, two other departments within SAMR, also joined the lecture session.
As one of the 29 departments within SAMR, the price supervision bureau is responsible for monitoring and correcting irregular pricing and unfair competition. Last month, the bureau, along with Beijing’s local market regulator, slapped education technology giants Zuoyebang and Yuanfudao with the maximum penalty of 2.5 million yuan (US$388,591) each for false advertising and misleading marketing.
Want more news? Subscribe to CPI’s free daily newsletter for more headlines and updates on antitrust developments around the world.
Featured News
French Prosecutors Open Investigation into X’s Algorithmic Bias
Feb 8, 2025 by
CPI
Meta Urges US Appeals Court to Uphold $725 Million Privacy Settlement
Feb 8, 2025 by
CPI
UnitedHealth Group Withdraws Motion to Dismiss Antitrust Challenge
Feb 8, 2025 by
CPI
Tech Firms Raise Alarm Over Ex-Amazon Exec Leading UK Competition Regulator
Feb 8, 2025 by
CPI
US Consumers File Lawsuit to Block Nippon Steel’s Acquisition of US Steel
Feb 8, 2025 by
CPI
Antitrust Mix by CPI
Antitrust Chronicle® – International Criminal Enforcement
Jan 23, 2025 by
CPI
The Antitrust Division’s Recent Work to Combat International Cartels
Jan 23, 2025 by
Emma Burnham & Benjamin Christenson
Information Sharing: The New Frontier of U.S. Antitrust Enforcement
Jan 23, 2025 by
Brian P. Quinn, Casey Kovarik & Michael Tubach
The Key Role of Guidelines on Exchanges of Information Among Competitors and the Divergent Transatlantic Paths
Jan 23, 2025 by
Rosa Abrantes-Metz & Albert Metz
Leniency, Whistleblowers, and Compliance
Jan 23, 2025 by
Richard Powers, Tara O’Malley & Cory Gordon