Internet issues require update to competition law

A revision to the country's competition law is needed to guide anti-monopoly law enforcement on the Internet, an official with the top industry and commerce authority said on Wednesday.

Yang Wenbin, deputy chief of the anti-monopoly and anti-unfair-competition law enforcement bureau with the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, said the country's 21-year-old law doesn't cover behavior on the Internet such as commercial plagiarism and interference between applications on smartphones.

Yang said at a media briefing on Wednesday that such behavior has adversely affected netizens' use of the Internet and harmed the legitimate rights of some business owners.

Yang's remarks came one day after the Supreme People's Court heard the country's first Internet anti-monopoly case. Qihoo 360 Technology Co, a leading antivirus software developer, accused Chinese Internet giant Tencent Inc of “abusing its dominant market position”.

Other issues in market transactions include one party's employing the comparative advantage it has to harm the legitimate rights of competitors.

“Due to the lack of regulations, the industry and commercial authorities have failed to exert effective supervision on such behavior,” he said, adding that the problem requires lawmakers' attention.