China Plans Regulatory Overhaul to Curb Food Delivery Price Wars Protect Gig Workers

China's State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) has introduced draft guidelines to regulate the rapidly growing online food delivery sector, focusing on curbing aggressive competition, standardizing fee structures, and enhancing protections for delivery workers. These proposed rules aim to prevent unfair pricing practices by platforms, limit excessive fees imposed on merchants, and promote fair competition among major players like Meituan, Alibaba's Ele.me, and JD.com. A key aspect of the draft includes measures to improve delivery workers' welfare by regulating wages, working hours, social security benefits, and instituting fatigue alerts for those working beyond four consecutive hours. The guidelines also seek to reduce the burdens on merchants and ensure high service quality by addressing coercive marketing tactics and establishing clearer service management standards. This regulatory effort responds to recent intense price wars fueled by heavy subsidies and discounts among leading platforms, aiming to steer the industry towards sustainable and orderly development. Public feedback on these draft rules is being solicited as part of the government's broader push for healthier platform economy governance.