Font Size: a A A

On Relevant Market Definition Of The Internet Instant Message

Posted on:2015-01-18Degree:MasterType:Thesis
Country:ChinaCandidate:D ZengFull Text:PDF
GTID:2296330467966274Subject:Economic Law
Abstract/Summary:PDF Full Text Request
In2013,Guangdong higher people’s court made the first-instance judgment in Qihoo360vs Tencent QQ, which causes a sensation in the legal scholarship. Their discussions as tohow to define internet instant messaging market hereinafter referred to as internet IM marketarouses many scholars’ interest. According to China’s anti-monopoly law, related marketdefinition is the precondition to certify whether enterprise has a dominant market position ornot. While in practice, it is difficult to define the market, because of imperfection of theexisting laws and regulations and the IM’s characteristics. In particular, China’s existing lawsand regulations are lacking in the definition principles, the definition methods are unclear, therules of evidence are rudimentary,etc. What’s more, the IM’s two-sided marketability,asymmetric price structure challenges the traditional hypothetical monopolist testing method,The globally availability increases the difficulty in defining the related geographical market.This thesis goes on the following logic order. First of all, it introduces thegeneral theories of IM market definition. Next it analyses the reasons why defining internetIM market is so difficult from two aspects of laws and regulations, and IM’s owncharacteristics. Finally, it tries to give some corresponding measurers to improve.Besides the preface and the conclusion the rest of the thesis’ consists of three parts:In the first part, the thesis introduces general theories of IM market definition. It mainlydescribes the concept of IM and its characteristics including two-sided marketability,asymmetric price structure and globally availability. Then it concludes that China’s IM markettends to monopoly by analysing its competitive condition. Finally, according to ouranti-monopoly law, it explains the concept of related market and its significance inanti-monopoly cases, and introduce the internet IM market definition which should put bothrelated product market and related geographic market into consideration.In the second part, the thesis analyses the difficulties in defining related market.China’s existing anti-monopoly law faces the problem of imperfection in defining relatedmarket for lack of principles, methods introduction and evidence rules. In addition, IM’sbilateral marketability and asymmetric price structure bring challenges in related productmarket definition, and its globally availability increases the the difficulty in defining relatedgeographic market. In the third part,the thesis provides measures to improve internet IM market definitionfrom three aspects. Firstly in order to fill the gaps of existing laws and regulations, it suggeststo set up a series of definition principles including “relatively reasonable”“large rather thannarrow”“meet client’s reasonable cognition”, and to clarify definition methods such ashypothetical monopolist test,product function test and profit model test in the law, besidesthose mentioned above, the views of clients, enterprises and professional associations, theclients’ preferences and basic requirements should be also considered as the assistantevidences by the law. Secondly, based on IM’s bilateral marketability and asymmetric pricestructure, the thesis recommends to take hypothetical monopolist test method primarily andprofit model test method as assistant tool to define the IM’s product market which is confinedto the field where monopolistic behavior occurs.Thirdly, geographic factor also plays animportant role in IM geographic market definition as well as its globally availability. SoChina’s existing anti-monopoly laws and regulations, judicial precedents at home and abroadshould be considered while defining geographic market.
Keywords/Search Tags:Internet Instant Messaging, Related Market Definition, RelatedProduct Market, Related Geographic Market, Small but Significant and Non-transitoryIncrease in Price
PDF Full Text Request
Related items