Core Viewpoint - The State Administration for Market Regulation has drafted the "Antitrust Guidelines for the Public Utilities Sector (Draft for Comments)" and is seeking public feedback on it [1]. Group 1: Overview of Public Utilities - Public utilities encompass a range of industries that provide essential goods or services to the public, including water supply, electricity, gas, heating, sewage treatment, waste disposal, broadcasting, and public transportation, most of which have natural monopoly characteristics [3]. Group 2: Antitrust Guidelines Purpose - The guidelines aim to address the unique characteristics and market competition rules of the public utilities sector, enhancing the scientific, targeted, and effective nature of antitrust enforcement [4]. Group 3: Identification of Antitrust Behaviors - The draft provides detailed specifications on potential monopolistic agreements in the public utilities sector, helping operators accurately identify legal risks [6]. - Horizontal monopolistic agreements are prevalent in the public utilities sector, particularly in the bottled gas industry, where operators may fix prices or divide market shares through informal agreements [8]. Group 4: Abuse of Market Dominance - The draft addresses the frequent occurrence of market dominance abuse in sectors like water, gas, electricity, and heating, detailing factors related to unfair pricing, refusal to deal, and other unreasonable trading conditions [9]. - It specifies common scenarios that may not be considered legitimate justifications for market dominance abuse, emphasizing that actions without legal basis or those claiming safety without proof are generally not justified [10][14].