Study On Criminal Responsibility Of Monopolistic Conduct

Anti-monopoly Law, as an important legal norms of the regulation of monopolistic conduct, was known as the "economic constitution". The Law can effectively prevent and combat monopolistic conduct that is not conducive to competition in the market, and plays a significance role in the protection of market competition order. In current market economic activities, the consequent harm of monopolistic conduct to the community was as much as the general economic crimes. From the effect of the implementation of the law, it is the cornerstone of effective prevention and suppression of monopolistic conduct to establish a scientific legal liability system according to the monopolistic conduct of the degree of harm in the Anti-monopoly Law. Criminal investigation and prosecution of monopolistic conduct is initiated by the U. S. Sherman Act, and influences the Anti-monopoly Law in other countries. For example, Japan, Britain, France and Taiwan provide criminal liability of monopolistic conduct in its Anti-monopoly Law successively. Obviously, in the context of the modern market economy, the criminal sanctions to monopolistic conduct have become an international trend. However, the legal sanctions mainly focuses on the administrative responsibility and civil liability, and the absence of criminal responsibility has led to the greatly reduced deterrent effect of the Anti-monopoly Law, so that monopolistic conduct is becoming increasingly severe. Therefore, in the establishment of the criminal sanctions to monopolistic conduct, China’s Anti-monopoly Legislation should consider the serious harm of monopolistic conduct regime as a start to distinguish the boundaries of the crime or noncrime, which not only ensure the penalty to be deterrent, but also to prevent over-deterrence. In terms of the level of market economic development, now China has had the theoretical basis and practical conditions to impose criminal liability on serious social damages of monopolistic conduct. Based on this point, China should adopt a dependent legislative model to fix the crime of monopoly agreements, the crimes of abusing the dominant market position and the crime of administrative monopoly, then to set the appropriate penalty according to different charges. All in all, as the most severe legal sanctions to the regulate the monopolistic conduct, not only plays an role in protect the effective implementation of Anti-monopoly Law, but also has great significance to maintain the normal operation of the market economy.