Research On Legal Regulation Of Overhaul Channel Fee For Large Retailers

In China, retail has become the highest degree of domestic marketization industry, and retailers have also reversed the situation when manufacturers dominated the market, occupying the dominant position in the industrial chain and gaining certain advantages in negotiations with suppliers. However, large retailers start to abuse the privileges they have to ask for slotting fees from suppliers beyond reasonable boundaries. As a result, the increasingly intensified conflicts between retailers and suppliers occur frequently in the modern market. Academia and judicial practices have always been controversial about whether the law should regulate it or not, or to what extent it should regulate. The traditional unilateral market model fails to identify the relative market economic advantages endowed by large-scale retail enterprises. Therefore, it is necessary to introduce "two-sided markets theory" in Anti-trust law with a view to better regulating the issue that large retailers arbitrarily charge slotting allowances.In addition to the introduction and conclusion, the main part of the thesis is divided into four chapters, the abstracts of which are as follows:Chapter one presents a general overview of problems related to slotting fees. First, it illustrates the definition and origin of slotting fees, the general public’s attitudes towards the controversial slotting allowances, and reasons from the pro and con. And next comes to the analysis on the alienation and manifestations of slotting fees presented in our country. On the basis of the foregoing analyses, this chapter at last dissects the legal nature of large retailers arbitrarily charging slotting allowances.Chapter two discusses China’s current legal regulations on large retailers arbitrarily charging slotting allowances and its defects. After reviewing related laws and regulations on large retailers arbitrarily charging slotting allowances, the second chapter firstly points out that there is no clause in Chinese Competition Law concerning the regulation of the phenomenon of large retailers arbitrarily charging slotting allowances. Secondly, this chapter summarizes some normative documents such as departmental regulations which specially regulate large retailers arbitrarily charging slotting allowances, reviews the problems of normative documents in implementation and further dissects the unreasonableness of contents of them. And then it questions the scientific nature of the setting of our law enforcement agencies and overall quality of personnel responsible for law enforcement. Finally, this chapter points out that regulations in industry associations are active but the effect is not satisfactory.Chapter three elaborates and takes reference to foreign laws and regulations on large retailers arbitrarily charging slotting allowances. This chapter mainly contains two parts, the first part introduces and analyzes legal regulations of some countries and regions on large retailers arbitrarily charging slotting fees and demonstrates some typical cases about overcharging slotting fees in some countries. The second part, on the basis of collation and analysis, generalizes enlightenments China can draw from laws and regulations on large retailers arbitrarily charging slotting allowances.The last chapter investigates how to improve regulations on large retailers arbitrarily charging slotting allowances. First, on the macro level, it suggests that current legal regulatory system should be perfected, such as amending "Anti-monopoly Law" and upgrading the legal force of special law on slotting fees. Second, on the micro level, we should reasonably set the contents of special law on slotting fees, which may contains the reasonable boundary of slotting fees, expanding scope of regulation and sounding legislative provisions of illegal responsibility. And then we analyze the necessity to expressly establish a specialized law enforcement agency and to improve overall quality of law enforcement personnel. Finally, this chapter puts forward a number of recommendations towards how to play the role of industry associations to the greatest extent.