Chinese Internet firms pledge to avoid anti-competitive behaviors

FILE PHOTO: A Baidu sign is seen at the World Internet Conference (WIC) in Wuzhen, Zhejiang province, China, October 20, 2019. REUTERS/Aly Song/File Photo

BEIJING (Reuters) - A dozen Chinese Internet platform companies pledged to avoid anti-competitive behaviors such as forcing vendors to use their platform exclusively, according to a statement on Wednesday from the State Administration for Market Regulation.

Companies including Baidu, JD.com, and Bytedance have made promises to stop using such banned practices, including over-harvesting consumer data and abusing their market dominance position, the statement said.

This is the first batch of the 34 companies including Tencent that were ordered by China's market regulator to conduct self-inspections for illegal business behaviors within one month, warning of "severe punishment" for any that still violated the rules.

(Reporting by Colin Qian and Vincent Lee; Editing by Shri Navaratnam)