China’s new internet platform pricing rules: Key compliance requirements for platforms and merchants: Allen & Gledhill

知识亮点 15 June 2026

On 10 April 2026, China’s Rules on Pricing Practices for Internet Platforms (“Rules”) came into effect for a period of five years. The Rules were jointly issued on 9 December 2025 by the National Development and Reform Commission (“NDRC”), State Administration for Market Regulation (“SAMR”), and Cyberspace Administration of China (“CAC”).

The Rules form part of China’s broader regulatory efforts to curb “involution-style” excessive or disorderly competition in the platform economy, including concerns arising from prolonged price wars seen in sectors such as food delivery, instant retail, and new energy vehicles.

They sit alongside the revised Anti-Unfair Competition Law, in effect from 15 October 2025, which separately prohibits platform operators from forcing merchants to sell below cost and requires fair competition rules in platform service agreements. For more on the Anti-Unfair Competition Law, please read our article “China’s revised Anti-Unfair Competition Law targets involutionary competition and digital-era risks”.

This article provides an overview of the Rules.

Scope

The Rules apply to platform operators and platform merchants conducting pricing activities through internet platforms within China.

Platform operators are legal persons or unincorporated organisations providing platform services - a virtual premises for online transactions, transaction matching, or information dissemination. Platform merchants are business operators selling goods or services through platforms.

“Pricing conduct” is defined broadly to cover the setting or adjustment of prices, price displays, fee collection, and the implementation of subsidies, across both commodity and service prices.

The Rules also apply by analogy to operators of self-built websites and other participants in the platform economy engaging in comparable pricing activities.

Merchant autonomy and independent pricing

Platform merchants retain the right to set their own prices in accordance with the law when selling across different platforms. Platform operators may not use measures such as raising fees, adding charges, deducting deposits, cutting subsidies, throttling traffic, demoting search rankings, downgrading algorithmic weighting, blocking storefronts, or delisting goods to impose unreasonable restrictions on merchant pricing.

Specifically, platforms may not:

force, either directly or indirectly, merchants to lower prices or run promotions (such as price concession or cashback);
force, either directly or indirectly, merchants to ensure their on-platform prices are no higher than those on any other sales channel;
force, either directly or indirectly, merchants to activate automatic price matching, automatic price reduction, or similar systems; and
otherwise restrict merchants’ pricing autonomy.

An exception applies where the nature of the platform’s business model requires the platform itself to determine uniform prices.

Platform fees and merchant protections

Platform operators must set fee standards reasonably (based on operating costs, service agreements, and trading rules), disclose them publicly, and refrain from charging unreasonable fees.

The Rules stipulate the following requirements:

When a platform adds or changes fee items, rules, or standards, it must publicly seek merchant views in a prominent position on its homepage for no less than seven days.
Where changes have a significant impact on merchants, the platform must provide reasonable transitional measures.
Merchants who reject the changes and wish to exit the platform must not be prevented from doing so; the parties’ rights and obligations continue to be governed by the pre-amendment agreement.

Price labelling and transparency

Platforms and merchants must clearly label prices, including product name, unit of measurement, and any delivery, shipping, payment, or other unavoidable charges. No fees beyond those displayed may be charged.

Where different prices apply to different consumers, the rules must be prominently disclosed and promptly updated. Dynamic or time-based pricing (such as surge pricing) must be explained, including the factors affecting price; where a fixed base price carries a dynamic surcharge, the two must be shown separately.

Paid ancillary services sold with goods (delivery, installation, commissioning, extended warranty) must be separately and prominently priced, with clear indication where a third party provides the service.

Promotions must display clear rules, duration, and scope, along with accurate reference prices for any discount bases. Subsidy promotions must not be falsely or exaggeratedly advertised, and must specify the subsidy target, method, conditions, and timing.

Where an estimated price is shown, its components must be disclosed, differences from the final settlement price prominently flagged, and any conditions (such as payment-method restrictions) clearly communicated in advance.

Ranking and recommendation mechanisms must be transparent, with relevant ranking, recommendation and competitive-ranking rules disclosed to participating merchants. Paid-placement or sponsored ranking results must be clearly identified as advertising.

Restrictions on unfair pricing practices

Below-cost selling aimed at driving out competitors or monopolising the market is prohibited, and platforms may not force or constructively force merchants to sell below cost. Exceptions apply to legitimate markdowns for fresh, seasonal, overstocked, or near-expiry goods, or justified service discounts.

Notably, a platform whose business model involves genuinely offering services free of charge to users on a long-term basis where this promotes innovation and improves long-term welfare for operators and consumers will not be treated as breaching this provision. This prohibition complements the corresponding restrictions introduced under the revised Anti-Unfair Competition Law.

The following actions are specifically prohibited:

Big data price discrimination: Platforms and merchants may not use data, algorithms, or platform rules to set different prices for the same goods or services under equivalent conditions, based on factors such as a consumer’s willingness or ability to pay, preferences, or consumption habits, without adequate transparency to the consumer. Platforms are also prohibited from price discrimination against merchants.
Collusion: Using platform rules, data, or algorithms to collude and manipulate market prices is prohibited.
Fabrication: The spreading of price-increase information, hoarding, or otherwise inflating prices is prohibited, including fabricating supply-shortage or demand-surge information and spreading misleading claims about competitors’ pricing intentions. During emergencies, operators must maintain reasonable pricing for emergency supplies and essential goods and must not use emergencies as a basis for improper price increases.
Price fraud: Price fraud is prohibited, including falsely claiming government-set prices, luring with low prices but settling high, false discounts or price comparisons, and misleading price labelling using deceptive language, figures, images, or videos.
False or misleading labelling: Platforms may not display a lower price on the homepage or other prominent position than on the product detail page, publish promotional scope or rules inconsistent with the actual promotion, or use technical means to force merchants into false or misleading price labelling.

Consumer price protection

Platforms and merchants must charge consumers strictly in accordance with applicable laws and contracts. Where they offer the following, they must display the options prominently and provide convenient cancellation:

Password-free payment services;
Bundled add-on services or products (insurance, transport, third-party platform services, refund or delay-compensation services); and
Auto-renewal or auto-debit Specifically, the consumer must be notified in a conspicuous manner in advance of each deduction and permitted to cancel at any time. Consumers must also be notified in advance of any change to applicable charging standards.

The Rules also encourage platforms to establish and publish online price dispute resolution mechanisms, and to establish product quality commitment and guarantee systems.

Enforcement and compliance

NDRC, SAMR, and CAC each supervise platform-economy pricing within their respective remits and may issue reminders and warnings, and conduct regulatory interviews. At the provincial level and above, they may investigate operators’ business operations, and operators must provide information truthfully. Competent authorities may investigate and address violations within their respective areas of responsibility, with SAMR playing a central role in market-regulation enforcement.

The Rules stipulate that where a violation is minor, promptly corrected, and causes no harmful consequences, no administrative penalty will be imposed.

Platform operators must strengthen pricing self-discipline by establishing an internal compliance management system covering eight areas:

Internal compliance management systems regulating the platform’s own pricing conduct;
Platform management rules guiding merchant compliance;
Publicly disclosed complaint channels for pricing issues, with prompt action to stop violations;
Proper preservation of pricing and transaction data, and cooperation with SAMR enforcement;
Product and service quality control systems, including sampling inspections, risk alerts, and handling of quality violations;
A price supervisor system for internal monitoring of pricing conduct;
Data security management and lawful handling of personal information in pricing; and
Compliance with applicable algorithm-governance requirements, including cooperation with regulatory filing, security assessment, and inspection requirements where applicable.

Practical implications for businesses

The Rules are China’s most comprehensive effort yet to regulate pricing conduct in the platform economy. Companies operating online platforms or engaging merchants in China should proactively review pricing, promotional, and subscription practices to ensure compliance.