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Studies On The Definition Of Relevant Market In Two-Sided Markets

Posted on:2013-08-20Degree:MasterType:Thesis
Country:ChinaCandidate:Q XieFull Text:PDF
GTID:2246330374456956Subject:Economic Law
Abstract/Summary:PDF Full Text Request
The starting point in any type of competition analysis is the definitionof the relevant market. It lays the basis for the theatrical studies of antitrustlaw and it is also the primary issue to be solved in most antitrust cases.As one of the most important conceptions in antitrust law, themeaning of the word “market” in “relevant market” differs from that in thesense of economics. The former refers to the place where competitionactivities took place and the latter means the place where goods andservices are exchanged. While trying to define relevant market, we shouldpay enough attention to the “market” in the sense of economics and itsforms as the changes in the forms of the market will inevitably affect thefield and boundaries of competition activities. The traditional definition ofrelevant market is established on the basis of one-sided market. However,as the emergence of the theory of two-sided markets in industrialeconomics, the traditional definition of relevant market is beingchallenged and defining relevant market thought a new perspectivebecomes possible. With those new challenges and possibilities, the legalcircles are expected to make further studies.In this article, the author aims to solve the problem of how to definethe relevant market in antitrust law in two-sided markets. Starting from therudimentary theories of two-sided markets and by analyzing thedifferences between the two-sided markets and one-sided market, theauthor discussed the difficulties of defining relevant market in two-sidedmarkets by applying the traditional analysis approaches, try to find ageneral approach of defining the relevant market in two-sided marketsthrough close observations on academic researches, current laws andregulations and real world practices and finally comes up with some suggestions on perfecting the definition of relevant market in china fromthe perspective of two-sided markets. Apart from introduction andconclusion, this article consists of the following three chapters:The first chapter introduces the basic theory of two-sided markets.Following the introduction the author gives an analysis on the threefeatures of two-sided markets which are “dependence and complimentaryof two-sided demand, cross-group network externalities, and asymmetryof price mechanism”. The author concludes that such features of two-sidedmarkets which are different from that of unilateral market bring challengesfor the traditional analytical framework of antitrust law. The classificationfor two-sided markets is also very important because different two-sidedmarkets are different in the market structure and price mechanism and thisaffects the final research conclusion.The second chapter talks about the difficulties for the traditionaldefinition method of relevant market brought by two-sided markets.Generally speaking, the main methods for relevant market definition arethe qualitative analysis of the products function analysis method andquantitative analysis of hypothetical monopolist test method. However,such methods are based on unilateral market and are not completely fit fortwo-sided markets. This chapter starts from aspects of qualitative analysisand quantitative analysis and makes some generalization of the problems.The third chapter probes into the general method of the definition oftwo-sided markets in relevant market level. In chapter two the authormakes a conclusion about related problems. In this chapter the author firstinspects the responses to the problems from aspects of theory analysis,regime and regulation, and practice level. In practice level the authorintroduces two representative cases of “Tangshan Renren Corp. v. BaiduCorp.” and “United States v. First Data Corp.”. The Chinese case takesqualitative analysis method and the foreign case takes quantitative analysismethod. The former case ignores the features of two-sided markets and thelatter case takes effective exploration in definition of two-sided markets.From the inspection of the three levels the author holds the view thattwo-sided markets theory doesn’t completely deny the traditionaldefinition of relevant market. What we need do is to make some change in the thinking habit and specific methods. On the forgoing basis the authorgives the general route for definition of two-sided markets in relevantmarket level and suggestions for improving that work in China.
Keywords/Search Tags:Antitrust Law, Definition of Relevant Market, Two-sided Markets
PDF Full Text Request
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