New Trends in Anti-Unfair Competition Enforcement in the Platform Economy

With the rapid development of the platform economy, new types of unfair competition practices continue to emerge. In 2026, market regulatory authorities will continue to strengthen oversight of the platform economy, with a focus on new forms of unfair competition such as data scraping, traffic hijacking, and algorithmic discrimination.

The characterization of data scraping conduct has been a hot topic this year. Courts have found in multiple cases that unauthorized scraping of platform data constitutes unfair competition, particularly when the scraping bypasses the platform’s technical protection measures. However, data use within reasonable bounds, such as obtaining information through public APIs, is generally not deemed unlawful.

Traffic hijacking takes increasingly diverse forms, including forced redirects, bundled installations, and misleading links. Regulators maintain a zero-tolerance approach to such practices.

Building a corporate compliance system requires establishing a compliance management structure, implementing compliance risk assessment mechanisms, and fostering a compliance culture.