Chinese Private Law Series & Competition Law Lecture Series

Competition and Regulation in China’s Platform Economy

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Abstract:
The crux in regulating digital economy lies in platform anti-monopoly. As long as the competition mechanism functions, there is no need for governmental intervention. While the digital economy presents strong features of natural monopoly, it also produces countering factors such as multi-homing effects and differentiated competition. Given such complexities, the EU and the US have established different regulatory frameworks on big platforms. The EU is active in strengthening competition law enforcement, and also imposing regulatory obligations based on the Digital Markets Act. On a stark contrast, the US is almost dormant on digital regulation, and has not taken any substantial measures so far. Both approaches aim at promoting their own digital economies with subtle political considerations. The comparisons and contrasts between the US and the EU demonstrate that it is feasible for China to first maintain the fundamental position on cyber-space sovereignty, and then to sufficiently balance multiple factors, including monopoly, competition, and innovation. It is thus proposed to extend the traditional spectrum and methods of competition law through the concept of minimum efficient scale. Meanwhile, attention should also be paid to disordered expansion of super-big platforms, and moreover, to impose sector-specific regulation classification and grading where there is no effective competition.

Speaker：
Dr. Liyang Hou is Professor of Competition Law, Director of the Economic Law Division, and Director of the Coase Center for Law and Economics at KoGuan Law School, Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Liyang received his PhD of law from the University of Leuven (KUL), where he also worked as an assistant researcher from 2007 to 2011. He started his professorship at KoGuan in 2011, and served as Assistant Dean from 2016 to 2020. He is currently Vice Chairman of Shanghai Economic Law Association and a member of the editorial board of Computer Law & Security Review (SSCI). His research covers a variety of domains, including competition law, digital regulation, innovation, economic analysis of law, and comparative law. Liyang has published plenty of books and more than 100 academic articles in both Chinese and English refereed journals, such as Common Market Law Review, Computer Law & Security Review, Chinese Journal of Law (法學研究) and China Legal Science (中國法學), and received multiple research and teaching awards from China’s Ministry of Education, Shanghai Commission of Education and Shanghai Jiao Tong University. In recognition of his achievements as a leading scholar on Chinese competition law, Liyang was awarded the title of “Chang Jiang Young Scholar (青年長江學者)” in 2021.

Discussant:
Jyh-An Lee, Professor, Faculty of Law, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Chair:
Weixia Gu, Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, The University of Hong Kong