The Essential Facilities Doctrines In Antimonopoly Law

The Essential Facilities Doctrine originates with the development of U.S. antitrust practice. It is an important principle for the regulation in the act of abuse of market dominance, as a tool to regulate the refusal to deal. This Doctrine is often applied in cases referred to infrastructures and networks, and in some exceptional circumstances can be available to intellectual property right. However, due to the specificity of its scope and elements, although the Doctrine has been already accepted by the U.S. and EU competition law and frequently used in practice, it is always accompanied by the criticism and question from the academics and practitioners.Based on the judicial experiences of the United States and the European Union, this paper elaborates the definition of the Essential Facilities Doctrine, its origin and development in practice, makes an analysis of the application scopes and standards of the Doctrine beneath the U.S. antitrust law and EU competition law regime. Then through the analysis and criticism to the academic questions about the Doctrine, it points out objectively the practical problems which the Essential Facilities Doctrine meets. Thus, this paper tries to bring up some systematic references for the implementation of Chinese anti-monopoly law, and improvement for the legislation and practice for the application of this Doctrine.This paper is divided into three chapters:The first chapter outlines the Essential Facilities Doctrine. Based on the jurisprudence of the United States and the European Union, it explores the historical transformation of the Essential Facilities Doctrine.The second chapter explains in detail the meaning and the nature of this theory. It analyzes the application scopes and standards of the Essential Facilities Doctrine in the U.S. and EU competition practice. It makes a systematical comparison from a theoretical point of view, and then explores the reasons behind.The third chapter focuses on the conflict and coordination of the Essential facilities Doctrine's application. Through the analysis and criticism to the academic and practical questions and objections to the Doctrine, it identifies and evaluates objectively its theoretical flaws, and from the perspective of the formation and the abuse of market dominance, competition and innovation, and the freedom of contract principle, it explores and analyzes more deeply the application of the Doctrine.