About half China’s major Internet platform companies have implemented plans to restructure their financial businesses. More progress is expected by year-end. China’s Supreme Court has issued guidance calling for stricter regulation and punishment of the country’s Internet platforms to guard against anti-competitive business practices and big data abuses. In the guidance, the Court calls for stronger judicial protection of intellectual property rights in new fields such as big data and artificial intelligence, as well as stronger anti-trust laws and stricter punishment of Internet platforms that “disrupt fair competition and disrupt market order”. The guidance from the Supreme Court follows recent...