Study On The Implementation Mechanism Of The EC Competition Law

The implementation mechanism is the assurance of the anti-monopoly law to play its regulatory role in the society. At present, the countries which have a relatively mature mechanism of the anti-monopoly law have generally established a sound implementation mechanism. It plays an important role for the maintenance of an effective and competitive market order. The EC Competition Law has the similar implementation environment as the anti-monopoly law in China. And compared to the judicial model represented by the United States, it is more suitable for China to learn from EC Competition Law enforcement mechanism. China's anti-monopoly law has just been implemented. Because the law has just provided general principles regarding to the construction of the anti-monopoly authority, the power of the agencies and the implementation procedures, it lacks of clear and specific provisions so that the implementation of the anti-monopoly law has stumbled. Therefore, it has both theoretical and practical values to explore how to improve the implementation mechanism of our anti-monopoly law. This paper has four chapters on the implementation mechanism of our anti-monopoly law.The first chapter briefly introduces the production, development and related legal sources of the EC Competition Law.Based on Article 81 and Article 82 of the EC Treaty, the EC Competition Law has been implemented for over fifty years. It is a relatively mature and far-reaching mechanism of competition rules all over the world. In this chapter, firstly, the production and development of the EC Competition Law are summarized. Secondly, the legal resources of the EC Competition Law are generalized. Among these resources, the EC Treaty is the main form, in addition to the regulations, directives, decisions and notices of Council of Ministers and the Commission and the judgments of the EC Court.The second Chapter is a deep analysis of the implementation mechanism of the EC Competition Law. In the level of enforcement agencies, the EC Commission, EC Court, the European Council and the authorities and courts of member states are the implementation agencies of the EC Competition Law. But they have different power. Among them, the EC Commission and the EC Court are the main agencies. Hence the focus of this chapter analyzes the settings, power and procedures. They form an effective implementation mechanism to ensure EC Competition Law to be fairly and efficiently implemented.In the level of the power and procedures, according to the 1 / 2003 regulation, EC Commission have power of making decisions, investigation, fines and other powers on competition cases. EC Court has power to review the decisions of EC Commission, which is the legal remedy of business and personal and the supervision of the Commission's decisions. In addition to public enforcement, in recent years, private enforcement in the European Union has gradually gained in importance. The implementation mechanism of EC Competition Law is changing from the mechanism of the administrative mechanism in the dominant position to that of the coexistence of public enforcement and private enforcement.The third chapter examines the status of the implementation mechanism of the anti-monopoly law in China and existing problems. Firstly, the author makes an overview of China's anti- monopoly legislation and enforcement of the current situation and a brief assessment. China's anti-monopoly law provided the Anti-monopoly Committee and the anti-monopoly law enforcement agencies only in Article 9 and Article 10, and it doesn't define explicitly how to set up two bodies and how to exercise anti-monopoly power. In practice, the Ministry of Commerce, the State General Administration of Business Administration and the National Development and Reform Commission all have enforcement power of anti-trust law in different areas. China's current anti-monopoly implementation mechanism is a decentralized mechanism and a number of agencies are responsible for the implementation of anti-monopoly norms. This law enforcement model has the following shortcomings: Firstly, this model lacks of independence and authority of the executing agency. This situation may easily lead to power cross or the power vacuum. Secondly, the relevant law enforcement officers lack professionalism. At present, China's anti-monopoly law enforcement agencies and the courts lack of a group of professionals who deal with anti-monopoly law. Thirdly, multi-agency enforcement model will reduce efficiency. If we do not clear the final authority adscription, the implementation of this law will face enormous resistance.The fourth chapter discusses the implications of the implementation mechanism of EC Competition Law to Chinese anti-monopoly law and how to improve the anti-monopoly law implementation mechanisms.First, this chapter summarizes the superiority of the implementation mechanism of the EC Competition Law. EC Commission has been able to effectively enforce the competition law for more than 50 years. One important reason of this is that it has sufficient independence and strong law enforcement methods. Meanwhile, the EC Competition Law also gives the Court considerable power. This setup effectively prevents the EC Commission in the course of law enforcement from abuse of power and promotes the EC Competition Law to be fairly implemented. Second, we analyze the similarity of the EC Competition Law and China's anti-trust enforcement environment. EC is formed by a number of member states and the domestic industry protectionism of the member states is similar to local protectionism in China. In both Europe and China there are lots of serious problems of administrative monopoly. Compared to the courts, administrative agencies often have more extensive political power and the power of management of economic affairs in both Europe and China. Finally, the author makes several suggestions for perfecting China anti-monopoly law implementation mechanisms. First of all, it is important to establish an independent and authoritative law enforcement agency, followed by clearing its law enforcement authority and enforcement procedures. And the light of European experience can improve some specific aspects of the implementation of China's anti-monopoly law.