China's market regulator oversees Lalamove antitrust compliance rectification

BEIJING, June 18 (Xinhua) -- China's State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) announced on Thursday that it has strengthened full-process oversight of antitrust compliance rectification by delivery service provider Lalamove, which is known as "Huolala" in Chinese.

The SAMR previously held talks with Lalamove in accordance with the country's anti-monopoly law, requiring the company to stop using algorithms to unreasonably suppress freight rates and to scrap platform rules that mandated exclusive truck-sticker requirements.

The regulator also urged the company to carry out a comprehensive self-inspection and rectification, and to operate in accordance with laws and regulations.

The rectification requirements include using price-adjustment algorithms fairly and reasonably, promoting a reasonable recovery in average freight rates per order and per kilometer, and regularly disclosing pricing rules and the reasons for changes in freight rates, according to the SAMR.

The requirements also call for the platform to fully abolish rules on mandatory exclusive truck stickers, stop punitive measures such as raising commission rates and imposing fines, and refund 120 million yuan (about 17.6 million U.S. dollars) in unreasonable fees to drivers.

The SAMR urges Lalamove to lower its overall commission rate to about 9 percent from the previous level of about 11 percent before the rectification, a move expected to reduce drivers' burden by more than 1.3 billion yuan annually.

To better protect drivers' lawful rights and interests, the platform is also required to remove the daily two-order limit for non-paying member drivers, improve the matching of vehicle types with orders, abolish its mileage deduction mechanism, allocate 10 million yuan annually for compensation related to mileage discrepancies, optimize its driver appeal process, and allocate 50 million yuan to driver assistance funds.

The SAMR said it will further curb "involution-style" competition in the platform economy, urge Lalamove to continue improving the quality and effectiveness of its antitrust compliance rectification, protect the interests of truck drivers and consumers, and foster a market order where good quality commands good prices and healthy competition prevails. Enditem