Shanghai plans fairer, more open market by 2030

Shanghai has unveiled a five-year plan for modernizing market regulation, with measures to promote institutional opening-up, ensure fair competition, improve business services, and strengthen consumer protection.

Under the 2026-30 plan, the city aims to achieve a consumer satisfaction score of at least 84 and lead the development or revision of 145 international standards during the five-year period.

To strengthen institutional opening-up, Shanghai will align its digital identity authentication rules with those of the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement and pilot cross-border digital identity authentication. It will also expand participation by foreign-invested companies in international standardization and promote international cooperation on green and low-carbon standards, testing, and certification.

The plan calls for equal protection of intellectual property rights for domestic and foreign-invested enterprises and stronger protection in emerging fields such as artificial intelligence. Shanghai will also remove barriers in areas including access to production factors, qualification recognition, government procurement, and tendering.

For businesses, the city will further simplify market entry and operating permit procedures, upgrade its online business registration platform, and use AI to improve government services. It will also expand joint inspections, non-intrusive supervision, and off-site regulatory mechanisms.

Consumer protection will receive further attention. More than 10,000 businesses will be encouraged to offer no-questions-asked returns for offline purchases, while at least 50 headquarters-based companies will support returns and exchanges across outlets and cities. Shanghai will also strengthen action against consumer fraud, price fraud, and misleading commercial publicity.

The plan also supports the development of high-level inspection and testing institutions in emerging industries, including brain-computer interface medical devices and smart pharmaceuticals, while promoting international recognition of local testing and certification services.