为了更好地监督平台经济公司，进入2022年，监管机构再采取一系列行动，要求公司重视并加强合规，保持和新规的同步。
中国人力资源社会保障部（“人社部”）等多部委在2022年1月21日宣布，对美团、饿了么、滴滴 、阿里巴巴、腾讯等11家头部平台企业联合开展行政指导，要求其维护新就业形态劳动者劳动保障权益。
在今年3月8日的全国人大会议上， 中国最高人民法院院长周强作报告指出，2022年将完善反垄断和反不正当竞争裁判规则，依法规范数字经济发展，保护平台从业人员和消费者合法权益。
继2021年国家市场监督管理总局先后向美团、阿里巴巴作出反垄断处罚后，2022第一季度一系列监管动态，继续释放了监管部门将大力整改平台经济中重点问题的信号。
根据国家发改委的定义，平台经济是以互联网平台为主要载体，以数据为关键生产要素的新型经济形态，它以网络信息基础设施为支撑。
目前平台经济主要有三种形态，第一种是传统服务业进行的平台化改造，如外卖平台、商超平台；第二种是第一种衍生出来的服务平台，比如支付平台；第三种是完全从互联网生产的平台，比如互联网金融平台。
据国务院发展研究中心产业经济研究部估计，目前平台经济的规模总量巨大，约占中国GDP总量的10%。
平台经济的发展依托了中国日益增长的网民数量及较高的互联网普及率。中国互联网络信息中心的《中国互联网络发展状况统计报告》显示，截至2021年12月，中国网民规模达10.32亿，较2020年12月增长4296万，互联网普及率达73%。
互联网平台带来巨大经济效益同时，平台经济领域的公司也呈现了垄断集中、伤害从业人员劳动权益、缺乏核心科技创新等问题。为改善平台经济的粗放发展，2022年1月以来，国家不同部门针对互联网平台的突出问题，如反垄断、数据合规，加大了监管力度。
己任律师事务所合伙人薛颖律师向ALB介绍了最近的监管动态：“2022年1月18日，国家发展改革委等9部门联合印发《关于推动平台经济规范健康持续发展的若干意见》（‘《平台经济若干意见》’），明确坚持发展和规范并重，建立健全平台经济治理体系。”
紧跟其后，在2022年1月27日，国务院印发《“十四五”市场监管现代化规划》，就将新业态监管作为重点领域，强调完善平台企业数据收集使用管理方面的法律规范，加强平台经济等重点领域反垄断执法，防止资本无序扩张。
公平交易
薛颖律师介绍，具体规制主要涉及反垄断及消费者保护、数据监管，和劳动者权益保障几个领域。
“具体的规制细化了反垄断、不正当竞争和消费者权益保护的具体规范，”薛颖指出，“《平台经济若干意见》将新场景下的消费者权益保护（如强调规制减配降质产品误导消费者、平台产品市场准入资质资格审查、缺陷产品召回等）和与平台内外经营者的公平交易（如强调规制平台押金、预付费、保证金、平台间互联互通等）作为重点规制对象。”
此外，她补充道，《互联网信息服务算法推荐管理规定》还要求算法推荐服务提供者不得利用算法对其他竞争者进行不合理限制，实施垄断和不正当竞争行为。
她建议：“企业需要检视其业务模式，避免实施‘二选一’‘算法歧视’‘自我优待’等垄断行为。在交易中涉及的经营者集中，应主动进行竞争影响评估。”
在互联网平台数据监管方面，“《平台经济若干意见》要求完善《数据安全法》、《个人信息保护法》配套规则，细化平台企业数据处理规则，探索数据和算法安全监管，”薛颖说，“2022年2月15日，《网络安全审查办法》开始施行，其中规定掌握超过一百万用户个人信息的网络平台运营者赴国外上市，必须申报网络安全审查。”
2022年3月1日，《互联网信息服务算法推荐管理规定》也开始生效。
它对应用算法推荐技术的互联网企业提出了包括算法机制机理审核、科技伦理审查、用户注册、信息发布审核、数据安全和个人信息保护、反电信网络诈骗、安全评估监测、安全事件应急处置等在内的一系列算法安全主体责任。
针对更为严格的数据监管，薛颖律师建议互联网平台企业要搭建完善的数据合规管理组织体系。
“可以通过数据梳理、分类分级、访问控制措施、脱敏流转、保密存储、加强内部监督和安全管理措施等具体操作实现对数据全生命周期的管理，满足数据合规要求，”她说。
保护用工
最近的监管规制还落实了社会关注的新业态劳动者权益保障。
薛颖律师介绍说：“2022年以来，上海等地陆续发布新业态劳动者权益保障的实施意见，从工会、劳动监察、最低工资计算等角度落实劳动者权益保障。”
早在2021年7月，人社部等八部门就联合发布了《关于维护新就业形态劳动者劳动保障权益的指导意见》，要求企业依法合规用工，积极履行用工责任，明确劳动关系、民事关系、不完全劳动关系三种形态。
今年的《平台经济若干意见》更要求落实新就业形态劳动者权益保障相关政策措施，完善劳动关系认定标准、健全最低工资和支付保障制度、开展平台灵活就业人员职业伤害保障试点等机制、加强培训等。
薛颖律师认为，“企业可以建立灵活多样的劳动关系；加强与劳动者之间的协商，合理制定订单分配、抽成比例等制度和规则；适时、适度引入人身意外伤害等商业保险，更好地保障劳动者权益”。
她总结道：“最新的管动态将事后监管的压力分解至事前和事中，互联网平台企业在未来业务开展的整改声明周期应更加注重合规工作。”
在互联网平台企业积极应对最新监管动态的同时，律所也在帮助企业制定有效策略，迎接不断变化且趋严的监管。
薛颖律师介绍，她所在律所提供给互联网平台企业的解决方案从常规的单一领域法律服务，转向“有机融合数据合规、反垄断、反不正当竞争、消费者权益保护、劳动法等多领域的综合解决方案”。
此外，薛律师指出，律所会将诉讼与合规相结合，将合规作为不起诉或抗辩的有利抓手。
“2022年对平台企业的监管将因循综合治理、联防联治的路线，既保证监管效率，又要保护企业的正常经营。”
- 薛颖，己任律师事务所
另一个应对要点是主动，“将法律服务前置，从被动应对监管阶段接入，到主动渗透到业务源头，将合规思维嵌入商业模式设计和交易文本制作，”她说。
在互联网平台经济产值日益增长之际，薛颖律师认为，2022年对平台企业的监管将因循综合治理、联防联治的路线，既保证监管效率，又要保护企业的正常经营。
她指出：“包括反垄断监管在内的整体监管原则，将兼顾效率与公平，并更侧重公平。”
由此，在行政监管领域将可能出现大量数据合规、反垄断、反不正当竞争、消费者权益保护问题交织的新型、复杂案件，并可能出现行政执法与民事诉讼、甚至刑事诉讼的互动与衔接。
BUILDING FAIRER PLATFORMS
Moves by Chinese regulators to better supervise platform businesses require those companies to pay increasing attention, and ensure they strengthen their compliance programmes in order to stay on the right side of the new rules.
On Jan. 21, China’s Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security (MOHRSS) along with other ministries and commissions announced a joint administrative guidance to 11 top platform companies, including Meituan, Eleme, Didi, Alibaba and Tencent, to protect the labour rights of workers in new types of employment.
At a meeting of the National People’s Congress (NPC) on March 8, the president of the Supreme People’s Court of China, Zhou Qiang, said the court would improve the rules for antitrust and anti-unfair competition adjudication in 2022, regulate the development of the digital economy in accordance with the law, and protect the legitimate rights and interests of platform workers and consumers.
Following antitrust penalties handed down in 2021 by the State Administration for Market Regulation to the food delivery platform Meituan and Alibaba, a series of regulatory developments in the first quarter of 2022 suggest regulators will vigorously rectify key issues in the platform economy.
According to the definition by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), “platforms” are Internet-based companies that are part of the new economy, use data as a key factor of production, and are supported by network information infrastructure.
At present, there are three main forms of platform economy. The first is the platform transformation of the traditional service industry, such as food delivery platforms and supermarket platforms. The second includes platforms derived from the first type, such as payment platforms. The third is platforms produced entirely from the Internet, such as online financial platforms.
The platform economy is huge and accounts for 10 percent of China’s total gross domestic product (GDP), according to estimates by the Department of Industrial Economics Research of the Development Research Centre of the State Council.
The development of the platform economy relies on a growing number of Internet users in China. There were 1.032 billion users in China as of December 2021, up 42.96 million from December 2020, according to the Statistical Report on the Development Status of the Internet in China by the China Internet Network Information Center.
While Internet platforms generate huge economic benefits, platform economy companies also present issues such as monopoly concerns, risks to the labour rights of workers, and a lack of technological innovation.
To strengthen the crude development of the platform economy, different state departments have been boosting their regulatory efforts to address key issues such as antitrust and data compliance since January 2022.
“On Jan. 18, the NDRC and nine other departments jointly issued Certain Opinions on Promoting the Standardised and Healthy and Sustainable Development of the Platform Economy, which clearly adhere to both development and regulation, and establish a sound governance system for the platform economy,” Annie Xue, a partner at GEN Law Firm, tells ALB.
Immediately afterwards, on Jan. 27, the State Council issued the 14th Five-Year Plan for the Modernization of Market Regulation, which makes regulation of new industries a key area, emphasising the improvement of legal regulation in respect to the collection and use of data by platform companies and the strengthening of antitrust enforcement in key areas to prevent disorderly expansion of capital.
FAIR TRADE
Xue points out that specific regulations mainly cover several areas namely antitrust, consumer protection, data regulation, and protection of workers’ rights and interests.
“The specific regulations refine the specific norms of these areas,” says Xue.
The Certain Opinions on the Platform Economy combines protection of consumer rights and interests such as putting emphasis on regulating practices that mislead consumers with low quality products, qualification review of platform products for market access, defective product recalls, and other areas.
The opinions also consider fair trade among operators on the platform, putting emphasis on regulating platform deposits, prepayments, security deposits, interconnection between platforms and more.
In addition, adds Xue, the Regulations on the Administration of Algorithmic Recommendation of Internet Information Services also require that algorithmic recommendation service providers not use algorithms to impose unreasonable restrictions on other competitors and implement monopolistic and unfair competition practices.
“Companies need to review their business models to avoid monopolistic practices such as ‘only pick one platform’, ‘algorithmic bias’ and ‘self-preferential treatment’,” she says.
Xue thinks companies should conduct a competition impact assessment when there is a concentration of operators in a particular sector.
In terms of Internet platform data regulations, “Certain Opinions on the Platform Economy calls for improving the supporting rules of the Data Security Law and the Personal Information Protection Law, refining the rules for data processing by platform companies, and exploring data and algorithm safety regulation,” says Xue, adding that “on Feb. 15, 2022, the Cybersecurity Review Measures came into effect. Now operators of online platforms holding personal information of more than one million users going public abroad must declare a network security review.”
Apart from that, on March 1, 2022, the Regulations on the Administration of Algorithmic Recommendation of Internet Information Services came into effect. These regulations put forward a series of algorithm safety responsibilities for Internet companies that use algorithm recommendations, including algorithm mechanism reviews, science and technology ethics review, user registration, information release review, data security and personal information protection, anti-telecommunications fraud, security assessment and monitoring, and emergency disposal of security incidents.
In response to stricter data regulation, Xue suggests that Internet platform companies should build a perfect data compliance management organization system.
“We can manage the entire life cycle of data by specific operations such as data combing, classification and grading, access control measures, data desensitization and circulation, confidential storage, strengthening internal supervision and security management measures to meet data compliance requirements,” says Xue.
PROTECTION OF WORKERS
The protection of labour rights is another key issue in these regulatory moves. Recent regulatory controls are making efforts to protect workers’ rights and interest in the new industry as social concerns grow.
“Since 2022, Shanghai and other places have issued implementation opinions on the protection of workers’ rights and interests in new industries, aiming to provide protection through trade unions, labour supervision and minimum wage calculations,” says Xue.
As early as July 2021, the MOHRSS and eight other departments issued the Guidance on Protecting the Rights and Interests of Workers in New Forms of Employment, which requires companies to comply with the law in employing workers, actively fulfil their responsibilities, and clarify the three forms of labour relations, which are definite employment, civil relations and incomplete employment, says Xue.
This year’s Certain Opinions on the Platform Economy require the implementation of policies and measures related to the protection of the rights and interests of workers, improving the criteria for determining labour relations, improving the minimum wage and payment guarantee system, carrying out pilot mechanisms such as the protection of occupational injuries for flexibly employed workers, and strengthening training.
“Companies can establish flexible and diversified labour relations, strengthen consultation with workers and reasonably formulate systems and rules such as order distribution and percentage of the commission, and introduce commercial insurance such as personal accident insurance timely and appropriately,” says Xue.
Xue says that the latest regulatory developments show that regulators are working to supervise the industry before incidents happen and Internet platform companies should pay more attention to compliance during the rectification periods for business development.
While Internet platform companies are actively responding to the latest regulatory developments, law firms are also helping companies develop effective strategies to meet the changing and tightening rules.
According to Xue, her firm’s solutions for Internet platform companies have shifted from conventional legal services in a single area to “a comprehensive solution that integrates data compliance, antitrust, anti-unfair competition, consumer protection, labour law and other areas.”
In addition, Xue points out that law firms can combine litigation with compliance, using compliance as a breakthrough for non-prosecution or defences.
- Annie Xue, GEN Law Firm
Another key point of response is to be proactive, a company should “prepare legal services in advance, change from passively responding to supervision to proactively embed compliance thinking into business model design and transaction text production,” says Xue.
As the value of the Internet platform economy grows, Xue believes that the regulation of platform companies in 2022 will enhance comprehensive governance and joint prevention and control, ensuring regulatory efficiency while protecting the normal businesses operation.
She notes that the overall regulatory principles, including antitrust regulation, will balance efficiency and equity, with a greater focus on fairness.
As a result, she believes this year will see a large number of new and complex cases which intertwine data compliance, antitrust, anti-unfair competition laws and consumer rights protection issues in the field of administrative regulation, and there may be interaction between administrative enforcement and civil litigation, and even criminal litigation.