On the Legal Regulation of Intra-Platform Competition in E-commerce Platforms

Manyu Wei

doi:10.54097/6g73dh88

Authors

Manyu Wei

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.54097/6g73dh88

Keywords:

E-commerce platforms, Involutionary competition, Anti-monopoly law, Anti-unfair competition law, Legal regulation

Abstract

With the deepening development of the digital economy, competition among e-commerce platforms has become increasingly fierce, gradually evolving into "involutionary" competition characterized by continuous price suppression and excessive marketing. This competitive model guides merchants to continuously lower prices through algorithms and platform rules, forming a vicious cycle of "low price—low quality—lower price," which not only damages merchants' profits and innovation capabilities but also disrupts market order and affects the healthy development of the industry chain. From the perspective of competition law, this paper systematically analyzes the formation mechanism, legal attributes, and negative impacts of involutionary competition among e-commerce platforms on market competition. Combining this with current Chinese laws and regulations, it explores the dilemmas in regulation and proposes systematic suggestions from the perspectives of legislative improvement, enforcement optimization, and industry self-regulation to promote the standardized and orderly development of the platform economy.

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