The "Guidelines on Antitrust in the Public Utility Sector" are issued regarding fields such as water, gas, electricity, and heating.

Journalists learned from the State Administration for Market Regulation that in order to further implement the decisions and deployments of the Party's 20th National Congress and all previous plenary sessions regarding strengthening anti-monopoly efforts, improving the regulatory system and mechanisms for natural monopoly sectors, enhancing fair competition rules, preventing and stopping monopoly behavior in public utility sectors, safeguarding market fairness and protecting consumer interests and public interests, the State Council Anti-Monopoly and Anti-Unfair Competition Committee has issued the "Anti-Monopoly Guidelines for Public Utility Sectors." Public utility sectors such as water supply, electricity supply, gas supply, and heating have natural monopoly elements, and in recent years, monopoly behavior has been more common. Operators in public utility sectors are prone to extending their monopoly advantage to upstream and downstream competitive sectors or excluding and restricting market competition in those sectors. Due to the public nature, regional nature, and policy nature of public utilities, the types, manifestations, and harms of their monopoly behavior present certain specific characteristics. The guidelines focus on monopoly issues in public utility sectors, summarize enforcement experience systematically, accurately grasp the characteristics of public utility sectors and market competition rules, thoroughly detail the rules for identifying monopoly behavior in public utility sectors, and provide clearer guidance for anti-monopoly enforcement and compliance by operators in public utility sectors. This not only enhances the scientific, targeted, and effective nature of anti-monopoly enforcement, but also helps to improve the long-term regulatory mechanism for anti-monopoly in public utility sectors, promoting the sustainable and healthy development of public utilities.