Research On The Exception System Of Agriculture In Anti-monopoly Law

The agricultural application exception system in antimonopoly law exclude specific agricultural market entities and competitive behavior from the scope of antimonopoly law adjustments,which is based on the actual needs for the implementation of agricultural industry policies,the oblique protection of vulnerable groups such as agricultural producers or consumers,and the national agricultural security interests.The constituent elements of the agricultural application exception system mainly include both the main elements and behavioral elements.The agricultural application exception system in antimonopoly law is based on a comprehensive study of the structural characteristics of the agricultural industry environment.It is the outcome of balancing the interests of agricultural producers,distributors,consumers,and the public in the development of the agricultural industry.As a result of coordination,it defines the space for agricultural industry law and competition law to play their respective roles.On the one hand,through the agricultural industry legal system,it is needed to promote the organization,coordination,and development of agricultural producers,and to improve their bargaining power in the agricultural industry chain,so as to ensure agricultural products are supplied on the market in the form of sufficient total and stable prices.On the other hand,through the agricultural competition legal system,agricultural product distributors are promoted to carry out orderly competition and survival of the fittest,and be effectively regulated of their possible restrictions on competition.The foreign legislation of agricultural application exception system in antimonopoly law mainly has four types: the European Union as the representative restriction type;the United States as the jurisprudence limitation type;Japan,South Korea as the cooperative type;and Israel as the expansion type.In terms of the main elements,except for Israel's expansion of the subject of exception to agricultural product distributors,other countries mainly tend to grant only agricultural producers and their joint organizations the applicable exception status.In terms of the behavioral elements,most countries tend to confer monopoly agreements only.However,regarding to whether the monopoly agreement on agricultural product prices can be excepted,the legislation of each country is quite different.Agricultural producers and their associated organizations should be primarily granted the applicable exception qualifications,and distributors engaged in agricultural product transportation,wholesale,and retail downstream of the industrial chain should not be granted.In China,the eligible subjects of the agricultural application exception system in antimonopoly law include: individual agricultural producers;public organizations composed of farmers,whose main function is to address the collective needs of agricultural producers or other public interests in rural areas,including rural collective economic organizations,Villagers' groups and rural grassroots mass self-government organizations;township and village enterprises and collectively owned enterprises with a certain public function in the implementation of national agricultural industry policies.As for rural cooperative economic organizations and agricultural industry associations,these two types of subjects have complexity and diversity in practice,and specific issues should be analyzed.These organizations should be granted only if their membership attributes and internal organizations conform to the attributes of "agricultural producers' joint organizations".The behavioral requirements of the agricultural application exception system in antimonopoly law can only be monopoly agreements.Abuse of market dominance,concentration of operators,and administrative monopolies in the agricultural field are not appropriate to be included in the applicable exceptions of the antimonopoly law.However,as to whether the vertical restriction agreement in the circulation of agricultural products is an applicable excepted eligible behavior,specific issues should be analyzed.If the agreement is concluded and implemented by a downstream agricultural product distributor using its comparative advantage status,it shall not enjoy the status of exception from the application of the antimonopoly law;if the agreement is jointly concluded and implemented by an upstream agricultural producer and a downstream agricultural distributor,it can be excepted.Article 56 of China's "Antimonopoly Law" specifically stipulates the agricultural application exception system,but its specific scope is not very clear.In particular,this article uses terms such as “rural economic organization”,“joint or cooperative behavior”,and the connotation and extension are ambiguous,which leads to the unclear elements of the agricultural application exception system in antimonopoly law in China.In practice,law enforcement officials tend to make an expanded interpretation of Article 56 and understand it as “the Anti-Monopoly Law is not applicable in the agricultural sector”,but they have also adopted the form of Article 14 of the Price Law to investigate and punish price monopolies in the circulation of agricultural products,which can be called the phenomenon of "escape to the' Price Law ' ".This has caused the following deficiencies in the competition law enforcement of China's agricultural product circulation market: For price monopoly cases,the law enforcer bypasses the restrictions of Article 56 of the Anti-Monopoly Law through Article 14 of the Price Law,making the actual enforcement effect very severe,suspected of disrupting the market price law;for non-price monopoly cases,it is difficult for law enforcement to implement effective enforcement because of the tendency of law enforcement to expand the interpretation of Article 56 of the Anti-Monopoly Law.In addition,because China's agricultural industry has a relatively weak legal system,it has failed to effectively support the joint organization of various agricultural producers,and it has not been able to effectively cultivate efficient agricultural product distribution channels,which makes the goals of Article 56 of the Antimonopoly are difficult to achieve effectively.The amendment of China's agricultural application exception system in antimonopoly law should focus on the positive interaction between industrial law and competition law.The agricultural application law and the competition law's role should be accurately divided through the agricultural application exception system.For upstream agricultural producers and their competitive behavior,The industrial law should be mainly used to play the role of support and protection;while for downstream agricultural product distributors and their competitive behaviors,they should be regulated by competition law.On this basis,the amendment of China's agricultural application exception system should be improved from the following two aspects:First of all,the overall improvement of China's agricultural market competition legal system should be made.Article 56 of the current Anti-Monopoly Law should be amended to clarify the main elements of the agricultural application exception system as "agricultural producers and their associated organizations",and the behavioral elements as "agreements,decisions,or cooperative actions",and a separate paragraph was set up to make clear the connotation and extension of the agricultural producers' joint organization.On this basis,the anti-monopoly law enforcement mechanism in the agricultural field should be improved through the formulation of law enforcement guidelines and the cooperation of relevant competent authorities;and the identification of the basic manifestations and harmful forms of restrictive competition in the agricultural product circulation field should clarify the implementation of anti-monopoly law enforcement in the agricultural field Important point.In addition,Article 14 of the "Price Law" should also be abolished,and the phenomenon of "escape to the' Price Law ' " existing in the competition enforcement of agricultural product circulation markets should be changed,and the monitoring and adjustment system of agricultural product price levels should be improved on this basis to ensure the stability of agricultural product prices.Secondly,it is necessary to carry out supporting reforms to China's agricultural industry regulatory system.First,it is needed to amend and improve the legal guarantee system for the circulation of agricultural products in Chapter Four of “Agricultural Law”,and to conduct a fair competition review of the administrative management system for the agricultural product circulation market in China.Second,we should improve the legal system of the joint organization of agricultural producers in our country,formulate the "Rural Collective Economic Organization Law" as soon as possible,and formulate the "Cooperative Economic Organization Law" on the basis of the "Farmer Professional Cooperative Law" framework.In addition,the government support measures of the Agricultural Producer's Union need to be adjusted and improved.