On Friday, the State Administration for Market Regulation, together with the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, convened an administrative guidance session for the online hotel booking platform industry. The meeting called on platform companies including Meituan, Douyin, JD.com, Trip.com Group, Tongcheng Travel, and Fliggy to strictly fulfill their primary compliance responsibilities, proactively mitigate competitive risks in the sector, and foster a healthy and orderly tourism market environment.
The session highlighted that fair competition serves as the legal cornerstone of a market economy, while compliant operations represent the lifeline of corporate growth. In recent years, China's online hotel booking platform industry has developed rapidly, playing a constructive role in enhancing everyday convenience and stimulating tourism consumption. Nonetheless, competitive risks warrant serious attention, the regulators noted.
As pivotal players within the industry, online hotel booking platform enterprises are expected to uphold legal boundaries, champion fair competition, and strengthen compliance management efforts to support the sector's standardized and sustainable advancement. The meeting further required all platform enterprises to strictly adhere to the Anti-Monopoly Law, the Anti-Unfair Competition Law, the E-Commerce Law, and the Tourism Law of the People's Republic of China. Taking recent cases as cautionary examples, the platforms were urged to conduct self-inspections against these regulations and proactively identify and resolve risks tied to exclusive cooperation arrangements, "lowest-price-across-the-web" promotions, and other forms of excessive internal competition.
Emphasis was placed on elevating compliance awareness, reinforcing the foundations of lawful operations and secure development, and establishing long-term compliance mechanisms. The overarching goal is to cultivate a market environment characterized by premium service quality, fair pricing, and healthy competition, thereby safeguarding consumer rights and advancing mutually beneficial outcomes for all stakeholders within the platform ecosystem.
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