Abstract: The pricing mechanism and legalization of data assets are fundamental systems necessary for constructing the digital economy. Market-based pricing of data assets is considered the mainstream academic view and the prevalent practice in data asset transactions. However, this approach does not conform to the pricing mechanism established by the Price Law of the People's Republic of China, nor does it facilitate the regulation of data asset transactions. The limitations arise partly because market-based pricing of data assets conflicts with the defined rights attributes of data assets. Other reasons include an insufficient understanding of the uniqueness of data assets and a lack of legal foundation for the pricing of production factors. China should develop a pricing mechanism for data assets that primarily relies on market pricing with supplementary
government intervention, and ensure its legalization. It is necessary to unveil the logic of the data asset pricing mechanism in the following three aspects: the relationship between marketization and legalization, the logical basis for government intervention, and the catalog list management system. Based on this logic, we propose specific systems for data asset pricing, thus standardizing the methods of government intervention in data asset pricing.

Key words: data assets, legalization, categorized pricing mechanism, catalog list management system