The Application Of The Principle Of Maintenance Of The Resale Price

Resale price maintenance is a kind of common form in vertical monopoly agreements.Its market structure in accord with certain conditions will form the vertical market monopoly, disrupting the normal order of market competition. China’s "anti-monopoly law" formally went into effect in 2008, and article 14 of the law made a prohibitive provisions on fixed resale price, defined resale minimum price monopoly agreements or behavior between upstream and downstream trading counterpart. In the meantime, article 15 of the law ruled limited exemption conditions for the specific case of RPM behavior or agreement and effects, modeling after the European Union "universal ban +(or parts) responsibility exemption" mode of legislation. However, the "anti-monopoly law" did not make a clear uniform standard for applying "per se rule" or "principle of rationality" to the treatment and application of RPM in the practice of law.The article will explore the two regulatory principles’ theory, and analyze actual cases on RPM of NDRC and Chinese court. This article will learn the basic concepts of resale price maintenance behavior and its regulation principles, combining with its economic and social impact and learning from legal management and regulatory mode of the United States, the European Union and other countries or regions.And then we will explore and analyze the selection and application of the two principles on limited resale price maintenance behavior in China. We hope to explore a suitable form with Chinese characteristics for China.Fundamentally, the anti-monopoly law limit RPM agreement or behavior from legislation and enforcement, based on its social, economic, and market assessment of the positive and negative root. RPM law of US and EU, as an antitrust law pioneer, also developed in the economic, political, and socio-cultural changes.I suggest that our antitrust law, implemented in 2008, can draw on experience and lessons of the US and EU, on based of national conditions. And we will continue to revise and improve the law regulation and the enforcement practices of RPM to make antitrust law improve economic efficiency and protect consumer welfare.