Research On Price Discrimination Under Anti-monopoly Law Perspective

Price discrimination, which is a kind of technical terms in economics, is used to describe a particular economic action. Price discrimination is the research object of economics and also the focus of attention in competition law. This paper, which regards the price discrimination of Starbucks as a starting point, tries to analyze the connotation of price discrimination in the the perspective of economics and gives a general definition about price discrimination. This paper also classifies different behaviors of price discrimination in some degree. Then we summarize and analyze diverse interpretations of statutes and applications in the process of carrying out. These opinions and the applications of law include US, EU, Canada, Japan and China. We discuss the basic framework about price discrimination on the base of study about different judicial interpretations and applications and draw a classification about price discrimination. That is to say, price discrimination can be classified into requirements of the subject, conduct requirements, legal consequences and exception rules. The subject requirements mainly focus on the enforcer's market position, to determine whether specific subject is prohibited by law; conduct requirements are to reveal the existence of price discrimination, whether belong to the scope of the legal prohibition; the consequence requirements are to determine whether exists the damage to competition. Exception rules include cost justification and respond to competition defense. Last but not least, we tease out some typical cases of price discrimination in our juridical practice. We also figure out a range of problems and challenges in the process of Anti-monopoly Law of the People's Republic of China's embodiment. This paper tries to find some tentative solutions to settle problems of legislative perfection, administrative enforcement and legal application from these cases and Anti-monopoly Law. One side, permissions of relevant agencies should be defined, On the other side, subject and conduct requirements, legal consequences and exception rules should be clearer.