Analysis on Unfair Competition: Based on China's E-commerce Industry

Abstract

The fierce competition in China's e-commerce industry led to many new forms of unfair competition. This study analyzes the specific unfair competition behaviors existing in the case of Genshin Impact and Pinduoduo, as well as the impacts of unfair competition on multiple parties. This study first defines unfair competition from both legal and economic perspectives. The Anti-Unfair Competition Law of the People's Republic of China is taken as the reference for legal definition. The theory of efficiency competition is used as the benchmark for judging the legitimacy of competition. Secondly, this study conducted a detailed case analysis on the case where Pinduoduo released false game themed task for Genshin Impact in order to attract traffic. Thirdly, this study analyzes the unfair competition actions of Pinduoduo from economic perspective and examined its impact on consumers, the two involved companies and the entire market. The final analysis concludes that the behaviors of Pandoro constituted unfair competition. It used the reputation and huge popularity of Genshin Impact to attract traffic and released false advertisement to deceive and mislead consumers. These actions not only caused increased costs and damage to the credibility of Genshin Impact, but also harmed the rights of consumers. At the same time, the unfair competition behaviors make more market resources tilt towards Pinduoduo, disrupting the market order. Future research is recommended to examine the effectiveness and rationality of platform regulation as well as exploring the development of technical solutions to prevent such unfair competition behaviors.