Study Of Substantive Review On Concentration Of Undertakings

Concentration of undertakings is an effective way for enterprises to achieve rapid expansion,large-scale economies benefits and enhance competitiveness. In market economy environment,enterprises have the natural tendency of expansion. However, over-concentration of undertakings willdo harm to the market competition environment and the healthy development of the national economy.On one hand, the formation of dominant firm in the scope of relevant market would have negativeimpacts on the structure of effective competitive market. On the other hand, the operation of dominantfirm would lead to monopoly high prices or poor quality and other undesirable phenomena. All thesehazards will eventually reduce consumers’ benefits and affect the normal operation of sector economics.In order to prevent the possible adverse effects originated from concentration of undertakings andcorrectly guide and standardize concentrations behavior, most of the market economy countries in theworld are controlling the concentration of undertakings by anti-monopoly legislation. This system andthe prohibition to monopoly agreements as well as the system of prohibition abuse of market dominanceare known as the three entities pillars of anti-monopoly law. The anti-monopoly review system ofconcentration of undertakings is mainly consisted of three major aspects of physical review, processcontrol and relief measures. Taking the substantive review of law enforcement agencies to concentrationof undertakings as research object, this paper systematically reviewed the legislative norms of theconcentration of undertakings of U.S., EU and China. Then based on this, it fully and rationallysummarized and analyzed the legislative regulations of substantive review and the review factors thesecountries and regions. In order to more accurately explain the above theories, the analysis processintroduced some foreign classic cases as well as Chinese cases of the concentration of undertakingsannounced by Chinese Ministry of Commerce. By the comparative study of the substantive review ofthe United States and the European Union on the concentration of undertakings, this paper presented theinadequacies of the legislation and law enforcement in this area and the relevant improving programs,which are hoped to be beneficial to the substantive review of the concentration of undertakings of China.In addition to the introduction and conclusion, the paper is divided into the following four parts:Part Ⅰ: The three concepts of undertakings, concentration of undertakings and relevant market inanti-monopoly law are clearly defined. The basic classification of concentration of undertakings ineconomics and the effects of the classification on centralized control legislation are introduced. Also thereasons of controlling the concentration of undertakings are pointed out.Part II: The standards of substantive review of concentration of undertakings in the United States,the European Union and China are introduced systematically. The standards of the United States and EUwere introduced by historical analysis method. The evolution process of the control thought and theeffects of early cases on standards of the United States and the EU were briefly reviewed to concludethe evolution law. Appropriate context analysis is conducted to Chinese control standards and their features and deficiencies were pointed out.Part III: A variety of factors of physical review in the United States, the EU and China on theconcentration of undertakings are summarized and integrated. Several most important factors, such asmarket share, market concentration, unilateral effects, coordinated effects, market entry, buyer power,the impact on national economic development, plea of undertakings were analyzed one by one.Combining with the cases of concentration control at home and abroad, it further explained andinterpreted these review factors, pointing out the applicable conditions and the methods of these factorsin law enforcement process.Part IV: The substantive review of the concentration of undertakings of Europe, the United Statesand China were compared. The shortcomings of China in review standards, review factors as well as theways of review of enforcement agencies and judicial offices were analyzed and relevant specificmeasures were presented to perfect the substantive review of the concentration of undertakings.