China jurisdiction report: Competition rules in app stores
All these cases were judged according to the Common Regulations of the Anti-Unfair Competition Law before it was amended in November 2017 (coming into force January 1, 2018), so controversies in terms of the legitimacy of judgments and legal applications arose. Articles concerning internet competition have been introduced in the new amendment, causing judgments and legal applications in the realm of app stores to change accordingly.
Previously, competition disputes among app stores mainly include “pop-ups” and “inconsistent treatment”. Pop-ups could be divided into (1) pop-ups including non-objective, unclear and inaccurate information such as viruses, advertisements, unofficial, date default, etc; (2) repeated displays of login or confirmation screens; and (3) reminders showing links to a particular app store but using terms such official, secured, quick, etc.
Disputes in terms of inconsistent treatment mainly include (1) no pop-up reminders; (2) different risk warnings for the same apps; and (3) different installation allowances for the same apps from third parties causing an inability to install.
New rules
According to regulations in the new amendment of the Anti-Unfair Competition Law that concern the internet, operator networks shall not adopt technological means to obstruct or destroy the normal operations of other service providers by maliciously influencing a user’s decision.
