China antitrust: ByteDance and Tencent legal battle seen as potential landmark case

In the past, few plaintiffs have successfully won cases relating to abuse of market dominance, says an analyst. The legal environment for monopoly cases could be set for change after Beijing named antitrust as one of its top agenda issues for 2021. — SCMP

ByteDance and Tencent Holdings, China’s largest players in content, entertainment and social media, have been engaged in a public battle since 2019 when WeChat, Tencent’s social network and messaging app, blocked links to Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok.

Since then both sides have traded barbs in public but ByteDance just upped the stakes in what could become a landmark case in China’s antitrust case law as Beijing tightens antitrust regulations, say analysts.