The Research About The Rules That Are Applicable To Judgment Of Illegality On Minimum Resale Price Maintenance

Antitrust law is looked as the economic constitution, the key function of it is to maintain the order of market competition and realize the efficiency of society. Minimum resale price maintenance, which is considered as a typical type of vertical price restrictions, brings about two sides effects on economy: restricting competition and promoting competition. Therefore, this topic has become a disputed issue in the world. By judicial practice, the America has adopted two fundamental rules; other countries has established its regulation rules and legislation modes; China, as the emerging body, is establishing and improving relative rules. The academic paper begins with the resale price maintenance basic theory, then elaborate the anti-trust legislation in other countries, then analyze which rules we should apply to judge the illegality of resale price maintenance and how to apply it in China. This thesis is divided into four parts:The first chapter involves the fundamental theory of resale price maintenance. To begin with, the chapter states the definition of resale price maintenance, and summarizes its characters and clarification. It focuses on the double effects on economy from the behavior of resale price maintenance. A detailed statement of its active effect, including promoting competition and improving efficiency of economy, is elaborated. Also, a detailed statement of negative effect, for example, harming the interest of consumers, is elaborated.The second part states the theory about per se illegal rule and the rule of reason. This chapter introduces the concept and the development process of two rules. In addition, the author displayed advantages and disadvantages of the rules on judging the illegality of competition. Finally, the author pointed out the controversy in theory and practice: when judging the illegality of the minimum resale price maintenance, which rules the court should apply, including the rule of reason and the per se illegal rule that considers its effect on competition promotion.The third chapter is about the anti-trust rules on regulating the minimum resale price maintenance agreement of many countries all over the world. To begin with, the chapter introduced the evolution of the United States on regulating the minimum resale price maintenance, and its basic rule is that the application of rules depends on the economy environment and economy policies. In addition, the author stated the regulation of anti-monopoly legislature on maintaining minimum resale price overseas, the European Community, Germany, Japan included. Finally, this chapter concluded that most countries in the world did not adopted rule of reason, and they tended to analyze its rationality on regulating the minimum resale price maintenance.The forth chapter elaborates Chinese rules or principles of anti-trust on regulating the minimum resale price maintenance. First, it introduces Chinese legislation on regulating this behavior. Then, take " Rui bang v. Qiang sheng" as an example of vertical price restriction, the author analyzes the rules and methods the Chinese court have applied to judging the illegality of maintaining minimum resale price. Then, the author introduces two points about which rules should be applied when regulating above behavior. Finally, according to Chinese reality, the author thinks that we should apply rule of reason to judging the illegality of minimum resale price maintenance, and we can improve it from two aspects-- key factors to consider and the allocation of burden of proof.