Research On The Price Cartels-based On The Regulation Of Anti-monopoly Law

With the development of economy, the markets are becoming more and more open, and many different entities are allowed to join in. Restricted by market demand, operators have to compete with other operators to get a larger market share. As a result, competition is one of the traits of market economy, which can not only help to adjust the supply and demand spontaneously, and also protect the customers’legal rights. But unfortunately, once the operators being defeated in the competition, they will experience the hardest time of the company, or even lose the company. Therefore, to limit the pursuit of extra profit and to regulate competition, there are always some agreements made by competitors privately, which are about the goods’price and quality. These agreements gradually became into a kind of monopoly, which we called Cartel.With the establishment of the market economy, Cartel as a kind of monopoly appears everywhere in the market, and is getting more and more serious, which has bad effects on the allocation of the market resources, and harm the other entities and consumers. As a result, how to control the Cartel is one of the most important problems right now. So far the measurements which have taken to regulate price Cartel have had some problems, such as the law enforcement agencies failed to explicitly, the rule of law confusion etc. The Chinese Anti-monopoly Law has made some regulations towards price Cartel, but the measurements are too brief to conduct, and there are still too many details should be made sure, such as the standard of price Cartel is not clear, and the enforcement agencies failed to explicitly. Provision against Price Fixing and Provisions on the Administrative Procedures for Law Enforcement against Price Fixing that were operated on 2011/02/01, made the standard of price cartel more clear, and enforced the protection towards consumers. It has defined specific 8 activities as price Cartel, and authorizes the price departments as the enforcement agency. However, there are still some problems not well solved, for example, the illegal responsibility is too single, and the protections towards consumers are still not good enough.Comparing between different laws and regulations on price Cartel home and abroad, and with a consideration of practical environment, this research is to analysis the problems of legislation and enforcement, then give some suggestions on the regulation of price Cartel.This article has six parts as follows:Chapter 1, IntroductionAt the very beginning, we collected the cases of price Cartel, based on the analysis, we put forward the problems, which already had during the legislation and enforcement.Secondly, we describe the frame work and content of the paper as well as significance.Chapter 2, the outline of price CartelThis part is mainly on the conception of Price Cartel, and the causes of Price Cartel. Based on the analysis of the conception, we can get the traits of price Cartel. According to the causes of Price Cartel, we can have a brief regulation of Price Carte. All of these above are about the regulation of price cartel’s background.Chapter 3, the necessity of regulationThis party analysis the needs of regulation of Price Carte from the following two aspects:On one side, the great damage caused by price cartel (1) distort the price signal, weaken the adjustments of the price to production industries;(2)limit the price competition, and harm other operators; (3)harm the consumers; (4)prevent the improvement of management.One the other side, the basic law of Price Cartel:(1)the pursuit of the value economic law;(2)the protection of competitors;(3)the protection of the consumers.Chapter 4, the basic elements of Price CartelTo judge whether a activity is Price Cartel, we should make sure if it contents all the basic elements of Price Cartel. Based on the Chinese Antimonopoly Law and the Antimonopoly Regulations, this part is to analysis the basic elements of the price cartel, such as the Subject element, the activity element and the result element.Chapter 5, the status quo and problems of legislation of price cartel This is the main part of the article.We reviewed the history of the regulation of price cartel, which can be divided into three periods:the days before the enforcement of The Chinese Antimonopoly Law; the days during the enforcement of The Chinese Antimonopoly Law; the days during the enforcement of Provision against Price Fixing. We have discussed the regulations towards price cartel during different periods that based on the comparing between the Chinese Anti-monopoly Law and Provision against Price Fixing, we analysis the main problems of the regulations towards price cartel.Chapter 6, the analysis of regulation of the price cartelTo perfect the laws of price cartel, this article thought we should learn from the abroad. This part compared the regulations of price cartel in America, Japan, Germany and the Europe unity, then found out that they have reasonable legal system、strict liability and authority of actuators, all of these above made the regulations play a good effect.Chapter 7, the specific conception of improve regulations of price cartelBased on the analysis of the regulation of price cartel home and abroad, this article make the following suggest:First, we should make the industry association as the special entity to be regulated. Industry association is a participant of the economic market, which is totally different from others, we should make a fully consideration of it to make sure the effects of the regulations. Secondly, we should improve the system of liabilities. Finally, we should establish the law of consumers’ protections.