A Study Of Leniency Program In Anti-monopoly Law

The leniency program in anti-monopoly law is a system whose arm is persuading cartel members to surrender or charge against other person's illegal acts by diminishing or exempting their law responsibility. The foundation of this program are the theories of Prisoner's Dilemma and Winner-take-all which belong to the economics. The program was set up by American and innovated by EU. Now it is showing its superexcellent avail and being introduced into most countries in the world. The prominent value of this leniency program is that from putting it in practice, the resources of executing the law can be optimized and the incomes of the whole society can be increased. But the program can also be the picture of equity in the legal sense and has the moral legitimacy. Looking from present statutes, the paper divided the leniency program's legislation model into three kinds. The first pattern is that the program was constituted out of the anti-monopoly law. The second pattern is the law embodies the program. And the third is the law only includes the abstract provisions of the program. Besides that, there are other statutes which stipulates the details of the program. The subject who can apply for the program includes corporations and individuals. But it merely apply to cartels. Most law responsibilities it diminishes or exempts are regulated in public law. The main extent of the program's leniency can be divided into two categories: allaying or exempting. Each categories has its corresponding conditions.The special anti-monopoly authority or the judiciary usually takes charge of the leniency program's execution in different countries. In addition, most countries also established some other legal regulations to assist the program's implementation. There are a lot of resemblances between leniency programs in criminal law and that in anti-monopoly law. And so it does between leniency programs in anti-monopoly law and the exemption of spot witness in common law system. However, they all have differences in details and intention which isolate them from each other. Nowadays, in China, we also have leniency program in anti-monopoly law. But our provision is too superficial to carry out. We also lack the supplementary systerms and some indispensable legal environment. So, in order to perfect our anti-monopoly law's leniency program systerm, the paper points out that we should embody the provision in respects of the subject, condition and extent. In the further, we should severely punish those who take part in cartels, strengthen the implementation, centralize the power of anti-monopoly to the special anti-monopoly authorities and set up necessary supplementary systerms.