Research On Regulating Vertical Price Restraint In Perspective Of Anti-Trust Law

Competition is one of the most important mechanism which make market economy operates in order. Some scholars argue that Vertical Price Restraint, as a strategy of dealers, excludes and restricts competition, while other scholars bring forward some dissidence. How should we evaluate the actions of Vertical Price Restraint in perspective of law? This paper, which is to do some research on that domain, will be of benefit for the anti-trust law under deliberation.This paper is consisted of five parts:Partâ… is to classify and comment the concepts of Vertical Price Restraint defined by laws and scholars in various countries, and to analyze the differences between economic and legal concept of Vertical Price Restraint, based on which to conclude a concept defined by this paper: Vertical Price Restraint is an action which restricts and excludes competition by limiting the resale price of merchandise in the form of agreements between dealers and another party. Therefore, the headword of Vertical Price Restraint in this paper is"action", while"agreement"is only the formal expression of"action". Then, Vertical Price Restraint is to be classified into three categories, one of which is the basis of this paper.Partâ…¡is to analyze the minimum resale price maintenance and the maximum resale price maintenance in perspective of economics. It is suggested that the impacts of Vertical Price Restraint has two aspects, i.e. efficiency promotion and anti-competition, but the impact on social welfare has not been concluded by economics. The main reason is that economical analysis bases on different premise, and whether different categories of Vertical Price Restraint are positive for social welfare should be analyzed through different market structures.Partâ…¢is to review and analyze the legislation of Vertical Price Restraint among countries. In transverse comparison, EU and its members, besides some countries in East Asia, regulate the lowest fixed resale price by means of"combination of general prohibition and responsibility immunity", while there are some differences in regulating the highest fixed resale price. In lengthways historical analysis, e.g. the U.S.A, the legislation of Vertical Price Restraint varies in different historical stages because of the impacts of economical condition, economical policies and schools of economics. Therefore, the conclusion is that, there is no uniform pattern of regulating Vertical Price Restraint in different countries and historical stages.Partâ…£is to provide some pertinent suggestions for the frame of regulating Vertical Price Restraint in anti-trust law of China, by reviewing and analyzing the characteristics of industrial market structure and Vertical Price Restraint in practice of China.Partâ…¤is the conclusion of this paper.