(Source: "Southern Metropolis Daily" 2025-08-02)
Since July this year, a number of important central meetings have continued to release signals to rectify "involvement" w88 online casino betting, and clearly pointed to "controlling disorderly w88 online casino betting among enterprises", "promoting production capacity management in key industries", and "regulating local investment promotion behaviors."
In line with the central government’s deployment, regulatory authorities have also taken action in “anti-involution”. On August 1, the National Development and Reform Commission stated that it was coordinating measures such as revising laws, promulgating policies, improving standards, and strengthening industry self-discipline to speed up the rectification of "involved" w88 online casino betting issues.
On the same day, a number of food delivery platforms collectively issued a document boycotting disorderly w88 online casino betting in the industry and promising to further standardize subsidies. Previously, in response to w88 online casino betting problems in the food delivery industry, the State Administration for Market Regulation had twice interviewed food delivery platforms and required companies to participate in w88 online casino betting rationally.
Not only the food delivery industry, but also many industries from cement, steel, automobiles to photovoltaics have set off the trend of "anti-involution". Compared with traditional industries, what are the characteristics of the "price war" in the platform economy? How can relevant laws and policies be used to control “involutionary” w88 online casino betting? From "volume" price to "volume" value, how to guide enterprises to break out of the vicious cycle of "involution"? What role do local governments play in resisting “involutionary” w88 online casino betting?
Revolving around these hot issues, Nandu Antitrust Frontier recently conducted an exclusive interview with Huang Yong, director of the Competition Law Center and professor of law w88 casino at the w88 casino. Huang Yong has been studying competition law and economic law for more than 40 years and is a well-known expert in the field of antitrust.
He believes that the subsidy behavior of platforms should be distinguished. If the platform forces or in disguised forms to force merchants to share discounts, or even lowers prices below cost, causing "bad money to drive out good money", it will be suspected of violating relevant w88 online casino betting laws. This behavior will distort price signals and lead to resource misallocation - capital will flock to realize subsidies instead of product quality, food safety, digital experience, etc.
1. “Exchange losses for shares”,The logic behind the platform’s “price war”
Nandu: Since July 2024, rectifying “involution” w88 online casino betting has become a policy keyword. What is the root cause of "involutionary" w88 online casino betting?
Huang Yong:"Involutionary w88 online casino betting" has recently been often used to describe vicious homogeneous w88 online casino betting. The root cause is that the dividends of the "incremental market" are gradually fading, and there is a lack of new exports for capital. It is difficult for some industries to find emerging markets that are as vast and rapidly expanding as in the past, and it is difficult to achieve differentiated development. This in turn causes companies to be forced to compete fiercely in already proven existing markets.
Nandu: Previously, industries including automobiles and food delivery have launched “price wars”. "Price war" often means profit dilution or even loss. Why has it become a common means of w88 online casino betting among enterprises? Specific to the platform field, what characteristics does it exhibit?
Huang Yong:In a market that operates normally, w88 online casino betting has many dimensions. Price is one of the most important dimensions, but it is not the only one. In addition to price w88 online casino betting, there is also w88 online casino betting in services and innovation. For example, companies can provide users and consumers with more adequate guarantees to improve market reputation, and they can also release more new products to attract consumption.
However, in the context of economic growth facing pressure and residents' income growth lacking expectations and having to cut non-essential expenditures, lowering prices is undoubtedly more able to attract consumption.
Although "price wars" often mean diluted profits or even losses, in the market structure of "involution" w88 online casino betting, if a "price war" is not launched or followed up, companies may not even be able to guarantee their survival, and may face elimination from the market.
In addition, the logic of platform companies “exchanging losses for shares” is different from traditional manufacturing. Especially for capital, short-term losses can be exchanged for capital market valuation indicators such as sales, user activity and duration, which is also beneficial to the platform. If new entrants do not follow, their traffic will be immediately siphoned off by their opponents; if old players shrink first, they may be labeled as "left behind".
Nandu: Price w88 online casino betting is a common means of w88 online casino betting in the market economy, and not all "price wars" and subsidy activities are "involution." So how should we distinguish and clarify the bottom line of w88 online casino betting?
Huang Yong:I think it is necessary to distinguish between "inclusive promotion" and "dumping subsidies" or even "predatory pricing". In some cases, platforms force or covertly force merchants to share discounts, or even push prices below costs, resulting in "bad money driving out good money", which will be suspected of violating relevant w88 online casino betting laws. This behavior will distort price signals and lead to resource misallocation - capital will flock to realize subsidies instead of product quality, food safety, digital experience, etc.
Nandu: In your opinion, what are the short-term and long-term consequences of the “price war” launched by the platform?
Huang Yong:In the short term, "price war" will lead to consumers' irrationality, and the spread of "sheeping wool" mentality and emotions. For the food delivery industry, the surge in order volume will lead to a surge in orders at the rider end, an increase in overtime rates, and increased safety risks. For merchants, "increase does not increase profits" and cash flow is tight. None of the above is what a healthy market should be like.
In the long run, the platform is profit-seeking, and may raise prices to make up for losses in the later period, forming a closed loop of "subsidize first, harvest later"; capital also seeks profits and avoids disadvantages. Once the financing environment tightens, there may be a "collective stampede" exit, leaving unfinished rider sites and unfulfilled orders, impacting social stability. In addition, the withdrawal of merchants will lead to further homogenization of market supply, which will not only reduce consumer choices, but also further intensify the risks of a new round of "involution" w88 online casino betting.
2. Censor the “involutionary” vicious “price war”,The regulatory logic is gradually becoming clear
Nandu: Article 14 of the recently revised Anti-Unfair w88 online casino betting Law stipulates that platforms shall not force or covertly force merchants to sell goods at a price lower than cost in accordance with its pricing rules. The Price Law, which is being revised for the first time in 27 years, is also planned to stipulate that, except for certain price reductions in accordance with the law, operators shall not dump at a price below cost, or force other operators to dump at a price below cost in accordance with their pricing rules. What practical problems will these new regulation adjustments help solve?
Huang Yong:The newly revised "Anti-Unfair w88 online casino betting Law" sends a signal to rectify "involution" w88 online casino betting in the field of platform economy. It clearly stipulates that it is illegal for platforms to force merchants to participate in activities that result in sales below cost price, preventing the platform economy from falling into a vicious cycle of "low price-low quality-low profit". It shows the country's firm attitude to curb platforms from abusing algorithm dominance and rule-making power, distorting price formation mechanisms, and undermining the order of fair w88 online casino betting.
The new provisions of the "Anti-Unfair w88 online casino betting Law" include the vertical relationship between "platforms and intra-platform operators" to prevent platforms from using their rule-making power to pass on costs to downstream parties, provide clear discretionary standards for supervision, and avoid the embarrassment of the past "subsidy wars" in which multiple laws were used simultaneously without any basis for compliance.
The "Price Law" implemented in 1998 was born in an era of relative economic shortage. Its core is to "prevent arbitrary price increases", resulting in consumers being unable to obtain sufficient consumer goods to support their lives. With the improvement of my country's economic development level, the objects regulated by the "Price Law" have also been adjusted, that is, under the conditions that social production has been greatly enriched, to prevent behavior that disrupts the market through "arbitrary price reductions".
On July 24 this year, the National Development and Reform Commission and the State Administration for Market Regulation issued the "Draft Amendment to the Price Law of the People's Republic of China (Draft for Comments)", which upgraded "dumping below cost price" from the w88 online casino betting supervision of the "Anti-Monopoly Law" to a basic price system, which is more basic; the introduction of "forcing others to sell below cost" fills the legal gap for platforms to coerce merchants to a certain extent.
Nandu: In order to control "involutionary" w88 online casino betting, both the Anti-Unfair w88 online casino betting Law and the Price Law attempt to draw red lines for low-price dumping. One question is, how to determine the constituent elements of "below cost price"?
Huang Yong:Determining “below cost” is a very complex issue. The first is, what is “cost”? Is it average total cost, average variable cost, or average avoidable cost, that is, the cost that can be avoided if production is stopped. Are only individual costs considered, or are industry average costs considered?
In the context of the platform economy, we must also consider the issue of cross-subsidy between multi-sided markets and digital ecology. The low prices for consumers on take-out platforms may be due to various factors such as merchant costs, platform commissions, and rider delivery fees. Costs and benefits have "shifted greatly" between multi-sided markets, causing difficulties in identification. Therefore, in the next period of time, it is still necessary to explore through individual cases and continue to classify and summarize.
Nandu: Recently, there is a view that the government should introduce price standards, so as to eliminate the "involution" vicious price w88 online casino betting from the root, or coordinate the market segmentation and production and sales coordination among enterprises. What do you think?
Huang Yong:I believe that this not only violates the basic laws of the market economy, but is also suspected of serious violation of the Anti-Monopoly Law. The core of rectifying "involution" w88 online casino betting is to break "involution" rather than eliminate "w88 online casino betting".
Currently, we can see that my country’s regulatory logic in rectifying the “involution-type” vicious “price war” is gradually becoming clearer. It not only “forbids low prices” but also “forbids forcing others to lower prices.” It focuses on regulating platforms’ use of traffic leverage to coerce merchants. I think this captures the essence of the problem.
3. To solve the "involution" problem, it is urgent to rely on the three-fold composite mechanism
Nandu: How should the policy side exert its efforts in guiding platform companies to shift from "volume" price to "volume" value?
Huang Yong:According to the deployment of the central government, "involution" w88 online casino betting requires comprehensive rectification. Policies and laws must work together to guard the bottom line of the market with the red line of the system and release the momentum of the market with the optimization of policies. It is necessary to resolutely crack down on behaviors that have clearly defined regulations such as "substandard goods" and "low price". At the same time, platform companies must be encouraged to shift from pursuing quantitative indicators to pursuing quality indicators, such as the "white list of high-quality merchants" and "live broadcast of bright kitchens and bright stoves" that are conducive to increasing consumer confidence.
In order to stimulate the innovation momentum of the market, it is also crucial for social policies to play a good role in providing safety net. Because this can save you a lot of worries. For example, rider insurance is divided into compulsory insurance and commercial insurance, and compulsory insurance is included in the scope of public services. Commercial insurance is tailor-made for riders by the platform according to specific circumstances; another example is through financial arrangements such as transfer payments, providing subsidies to relatives and children of origin of riders who work in other places and serve urban construction and development to protect their basic education and medical expenses.
Nandu: From the adjustment of regulatory logic to the improvement of the legal system, what do you think this series of anti-"involution" measures ultimately hope to have?
Huang Yong:The goal of the series of measures currently taken by our country to deal with "involution" is to upgrade the supervision of the maintenance of traditional market order to the essential guarantee of the price formation mechanism in the digital era. Its underlying legal principle lies in reconstructing the legal boundaries of platform power - by breaking the transmission chain of "algorithm dominance → rule-making power → price distortion", curbing the platform's illegal transfer of operating costs to the downstream of the industrial chain, and ultimately safeguarding the resource allocation function of price as the core signal of market w88 online casino betting.
To solve the problem of "involution", it is urgent to rely on a three-fold composite mechanism: at the legislative level, refine the legality judgment standards of platform price intervention behavior; at the law enforcement level, strengthen the collaborative governance capabilities of market supervision departments and antitrust agencies; at the judicial level, develop effect analysis rules that conform to the characteristics of the digital economy. Only in this way can we truly realize the modern market governance vision of “fair w88 online casino betting, high quality and good price” and lay a solid foundation for the rule of law for high-quality development.
Nandu: Regulating government behavior is also an important direction in comprehensively rectifying “involution” w88 online casino betting. this year7month1First mentioned at the sixth meeting of the Central Financial and Economic Commission held on 12963_12983|“Unified government behavioral standards”，7month30The Political Bureau meeting of the CPC Central Committee held on the 13th once again made it clear that local investment promotion behaviors should be regulated. What role do you think local governments play in "involutionary" w88 online casino betting?
Huang Yong:In the process of pursuing economic indicators, some local governments have intentionally or unintentionally promoted "involution" w88 online casino betting. For example, in local investment competitions, tax refunds, rent reductions, and data openness are used as bargaining chips to induce platforms to place orders locally. Some cities include platform orders in the "digital economy" assessment and objectively provide implicit subsidies or data support, further amplifying irrational w88 online casino betting. The scale-only and sales-only theories in investment promotion also encourage platform momentum rather than improving quality in disguise.
Nandu: In this regard, how can we further regulate government behavior?
Huang Yong:I believe that the State Council’s “Regulations on Fair w88 online casino betting Review” must be thoroughly implemented. Any subsidy and reward policies involving platforms must first pass review, and it is prohibited to use financial funds to support platform promotions below cost. It is necessary to optimize the design of the local government assessment indicator system, weaken the assessment of short-term economic figures, and strengthen the assessment of long-term business environment construction.
We should deeply realize that rectifying "involution" w88 online casino betting, maintaining fair w88 online casino betting, building a unified large market, and optimizing the business environment are complementary and organically unified wholes and cannot be separated.
Attached original text link:https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/_FS-FY_EWAFAJShWIOzgAw
