Research On Anti-Monopoly Law In Professional Sports Activities Of China

Sports activities are playing an increasingly significant role in our daily life. Besides enriching our leisure time, sport in its professional form has been a driving force to the improvement of national athletic level as well as comprehensive national strength. However, the existence of monopoly in professional sports activities has affected the health development of sports industry in our country.Both economic and administrative monopoly in professional sports activities are obstacles in the path of smooth development of sports industry in China. The removal of these obstacles is not only related to the implementation of national sports policies but also to the interests of Chinese people. The issue and implementation of anti-monopoly laws in China requires that one who has committed monopoly must be punished by law. Whereof, yet no specific regulations on how to conduct the anti-monopoly laws in professional sports industry are provided, neither are there any rules that allow monopoly in professional sports industry to go beyond the boundary. The author, based on advanced experiences in European and American countries, is trying to find a new path of development that suits the domestic situations in China. First of all, the author has a discussion on the characteristics of China's professional sports activities and comment on the standards and goals for development. Due to the special domestic situations in China, the market-economy starting late, the influences of planning economy remaining and the duo-leadership of State Physical Cultural Administration and professional sports organizations, professional sports activities in China cannot completely copy the experiences of developed countries. Meanwhile, the standard for the development of professional sports activities is mainly based on the balance among different interest-subjects. The goal is to enhance the development of economy, improve people's physical qualities and realize fair competition. Second, the author summarizes the existing monopoly problem in China's professional sports activities, with the abuse of one's dominant position in the market, merging, refusal of trade, administrative monopoly, etc as the main manifestations. Last but not the least, the author gives an introduction on successful methods employed in developed countries, and offers suggestions based on their experiences. Suggestion one, limited exemption should be adopted. With the fact that our country's professional sports activities start late and still have a long way to go to catch with those developed countries under consideration, a complete exemption is impossible for it does not meet the needs of free economic competition; however, monopoly in professional sports activities still cannot be brought into the frame of anti-monopoly laws completely, because in the current stage in China the market is not yet powerful enough to improve the overall level of professional sports activities. Suggestion two, consumers' benefits must be protected. Consumers are the premise of the development of professional sports activities. The unitary pursuit of economic benefits in professional sports activities without duly protection to the interests of consumers will lead to the loss of driving force and prospect of professional sports activities. Finally, based on the special domestic situations in China and the advanced experiences from developed countries, the author proposes a specific solution to solve the monopoly problem in professional sports activities in China.The healthy development of professional sports activities in China cannot be realized without the duly protection of laws, in particular, the anti-monopoly law. The anti-monopoly law should be adopted in the professional sports industry so that professional sports activities have regulations to abide by, but also the special characteristics of professional sports activities should be taken into consideration and certain exemption should be given to some professional sports organizations so that they can exercise their legal administrative rights. The appropriate employment of antimonopoly law will be effective in solving the monopoly problem in China's professional sports activities, and thus will hopefully improve our national professional sports activities level and our comprehensive national strength.