Antitrust Regulations CPN Study Protocol

With the development of science and technology, the network has become an indispensable tool in people’s daily life. Telecom operators, as the operators of network services, launch fierce competitions of user resources for profits. CPN, which provides network services with users, has become the main battlefield for telecom operators to seize the resources. However, many those of operators choose to sign agreements with real estate developers and property management companies to block other brands of telecom operators to enter. Therefore, this behavior can not only limit fair competitions among the operators in the same field, destroy the competition order in the telecom services market, but also can damage the consumers’ self-choice right seriously.Be based on the CPN agreement, the author analyzes the subject, the legal nature, and the legislative circumstances of the agreement. Then the author suggests that it should be added to the antitrust law, which can be a better way to tackle with monopoly in telecommunications services market.The first part describes the subjects of legal relation and the interested parties of the CPN agreement. The agreement is signed between telecom operators and real estate developers or property companies; the former pays some "entrance fee" to reach a series of exclusivity clauses with them. Consequently, the aim of restricting other telecom operators can be came true. This behavior both harms consumers’ self-choice right indirectly and the competition order of the market.In the second part, the author analyzes the legal nature of the CPN. The agreement, which is considered as monopoly activity, limits the competition of other operators. But it is not only different with the horizontal agreements, signed by the two operators, but also be different with the vertical agreements that signed by the upstream-downstream market players. We can see that the agreement has special characteristics. And there is no direct competition between telecom operators and real estate companies, but in fact, due to the link of residential tenants, they can be cooperative partners with mutual benefit.The third section describes the current status of the CPN regulation. Although a series of regulated documents, such as "Telecommunications Regulations" are formulated to supervise and control the related issues of CPN, the effectiveness of these documents is too low to carry out. And for such monopoly behavior, China’s "anti-monopoly law" has not yet been clearly defined.The fourth part is the relevant specifications for improving CPN, and the suggestions for solving the problems of CPN agreement. Firstly, this behavior should be classified in "anti-monopoly law" and be regulated, and then the competition order of the market can be maintained. Secondly, the identification of the agreement should meet three conditions. One is the cooperative relationships between the subjects, the second is the situation of the other competitors, and the last one is consumers’self-choice. Thirdly, it is to protect consumers’ option, and to restrict the development of telecommunications operators and developers to a certain degree, and to guarantee other operators’ equal access rights. Finally, the right of action should be empowered to those vulnerable consumers, so they can ask courts for help.