Research On The Definition Of Internet Related Market

The internet industry,hailed as the “Economic Legend”,has brought another boost to the global economy with its booming momentum.But behind all this rapid development of internet economy lies the growth of anti-monopoly legal cases.As the logical starting point of anti-monopoly competition analysis,the definition of relevant market plays a significant role in anti-monopoly cases.So the definition of relevant market in the internet industry has been gaining extensive attention among anti-monopoly scholars and judicial organs,especially since “Tencent's abuse case of market dominant position sued by Qihoo 360” in 2010,which made people begin to realize that there was an impact to the traditional definition theory of relevant market,which was initiated upon by the characteristics of cross-network externality,its bilateral,free and high dynamic nature,openness…of the internet industry.In this particular case,the inadaptability in the internet industry of the tradition definition theory of relevant market involves relevant products,regions and temporal markets.Does the definition of relevant market in the internet industry have to be clear and definite? Can the traditional definition methods of relevant market continue to apply in the internet industry? Could the definition of relevant geographical market transcend the limitation of time and space and define it as a global market? Does the independent value of relevant temporal market exist in the internet industry? And questions as such.As to these series of questions,some controversies do exist in the verdicts of courts of first and second instance,but exploration has been made on the application logic of laws and fact-finding methods,which leads to the formation of some ground rules of ruling that are worth studying.For instance,the two-time application of “monopolist assumption test” by the High Court of Guangdong Province sparkled a lot of argumentation among legal experts;and in this case,the Supreme Court showed a “Basdic Definition” attitude to the definition of relevant market in the internet industry…Therefore,we can take “Tencent's case sued by Qihoo 360” as an entry point,which will contribute to the study of the plight in China's internet anti-monopoly practices,then targeted solutions are likely to be putforward.On the side of legislation,while enhancing the implementation capability of laws and regulations and adding new consideration factors,at the same time,establishing related case guidance,definition patterns of relevant market based on two-sided markets and more fair and reasonable sharing policies of burden of proof are also necessary.