On The Anti-monopoly Regulation Of Joint Ventures

It is quite common for two or more independent enterprises to take a conjointcontrol of another enterprise. This creation of a joint venture helps to improve theoperation efficiency of concerned enterprises. Simultaneously, it also has a goodchance to restrict free competition. Theoretically, as two classical components ofanti-monopoly law, stipulations on monopoly agreements and enterprisecombinations should be sufficient to solve all problems concerning joint ventures.However, the line between these two areas is not so clear as that we have imagined.Although some joint ventures seemly modify the structure of concerned enterprises,those controlling enterprises merely use them as an instrument to reach an accord incompetition. The divergence between phenomenon and nature leads to the uncertaintyof law application.The European Union and the United States of America have accumulated muchexperience on how to regulate joint ventures. On the basis of learning from them, thisarticle focuses on the establishment of an effective regulation system of joint venturein Chinese Anti-monopoly Law. Comparative research and case study constitute themain methods. A series of issues are discussed in this article: what should be thedefinition of joint venture in anti-monopoly law, why it is necessary for the law toregulate it, what is the main obstacle for its regulation and how to eliminate theuncertainty of law application. The last issue constitutes the main part of the wholearticle. In this part, the author puts forwards a new "effect standard" to classify jointventures and summarizes frequent factors to be considered for this standard.The conclusion is that Chinese Anti-monopoly Law should have a cleardefinition on joint venture and a special stipulation on its law application. Theuncertainty can be eliminated only when there is a clear differentiation on theapplication conditions of stipulations on monopoly agreements and enterprisecombinations.