"14th Five-Year Plan" Period Market Regulatory Departments Deepen Anti-Monopoly Enforcement

On March 23, the State Administration for Market Regulation announced that during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, market regulation authorities will focus on law enforcement and case handling as the main approach, promote fair competition governance in key areas, and effectively prevent and curb monopolistic behaviors. Data shows that during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, the market regulation authorities concentrated on key sectors such as platform economy, public utilities, and pharmaceuticals, investigating 369 cases of monopoly agreements, abuse of market dominance, and illegal mergers, with a total fines and penalties of 27.359 billion yuan; they concluded 3,667 cases of mergers and acquisitions, approving 19 with additional restrictive conditions, prohibiting 2, and supervising the enforcement of 63 conditional cases; they also handled 290 cases of abuse of administrative power to exclude or restrict competition. (Xinhua News Agency)