The Research Of Private Antitrust Actions

Private antitrust action is a civil action in which a private party is injured by another private party as a result of a violation of the antitrust law. Private antitrust action is a positive complement of public enforcement, which functions to compensate victims, make up the resources of public enforcement and ensure its stability and generality. When enacting Antitrust Law in China, we should use the experience of private antitrust litigation in the United States as reference and consult the reform measures of the European Union so as to complete the private legal action system in which public enforcement as the principal part is complemented by private actions.According to different standards, private antitrust actions can be grouped as damages and anti-violation actions; competitor actions, direct purchaser actions and indirect purchaser actions; individual actions, class actions and group actions; follow-on actions and stand-alone actions. Those academic grouping is of constructive significance to legislation and judiciary. The basic goal of antitrust law determines the development of private enforcement. To protect the interest of consumers has been taken as the primary task of antitrust law in many countries, while private enforcement is the most effective justice way for the realizing of this task. Class actions, damages actions and standing for damages actions have played very important role in private antitrust litigation.In China's Civil Procedure Law, the prescription of standing for damages action is against the development of antitrust private enforcement. And there is no real system of class actions and reasonable multiply damages. We should broaden plaintiff standing, endow appealing rights to consumers and give limited appealing rights to non-profit public institutions. The enforcement should be perfected from the aspects of right registration procedure, forms of notice, rights protection of class members so as to make it evolve to class actions. With the reference of American experience and based on the reality of our own country, decoupled three-times damages should be established.