Research On Plaintiff Qualification Of Vertical Monopoly Agreement’s Participants

Vertical monopoly agreement is a common and server restrict competition behavior,the striking on which has a direct influence on the implementation of the anti-monopoly law.Antitrust civil litigation can effectively remedy and rectify the lack of public enforcement on anti-monopoly,and thus is the edge tool in regulating and combating vertical monopoly agreement and the major force in achieving effective market competition as well as safeguarding consumers’ rights and interests.The scope of the plaintiff qualification directly determines the degree of protections on the interests of the operators,the extent of deterrence on monopolization,and the depth of ensuring fair competition in the market.The participants of vertical monopoly agreement,when filing an antitrust suit for damages,may be the victims of monopolization.Excessively ascertaining their responsibility and limiting their qualification as plaintiff will dampen the value pursuit of the anti-monopoly law in promoting the public interests.However,permitting the participants to have the plaintiffs,qualification expands the border beyond the bounds of reason and necessity.Therefore,solutions on this problem cannot be neglected for that it concerning the value pursuit and target orientation of the anti-monopoly law.The present paper,through analyzing the Johnson case and Apple Price Monopoly case,pointed out the issures on determining the participants of vertical monopoly agreement as the plaintiff.First of all,the provisions of the plaintiff qualification in China’s anti-monopoly law are too vague,let alone the clear guidelines for the plaintiffs qualification of the vertical monopoly agreement participants with ’original sin’,which lead to controversy in judicial practice.Secondly,the concurrence of participants and victims existing in the vertical monopoly agreement increases the difficulty of the determination of the plaintiff qualification.Third,the court has insufficient experience in antitrust cases.Through the analysis of the above problems and investigation the relevant provisions of foreign countries,this paper provided solutions for the perfection of China’s relevant systems.The author believes that the vertical monopoly agreement participants deserve limited plaintiff qualification due to their particularity.And the plaintiff qualification should take the two standards,i.e.’damage’ and ’contributed to the degree of responsibility5,into consideration,so as to find the real victims of monopolization,and thus to clarify plaintiff qualification of the vertical monopoly agreement participants.The legislator should also improve the plaintiff qualification rules and evidence rules,providing more effective convenience for the plaintiff and more comprehensive and accurate guidance for the procedure,so as to solve the practical problems in China’s anti-monopoly civil litigation.Courts and anti monopoly enforcement agencies should also establish joint and cooperative mechanisms to make up for the lack of professionalism in the trial of anti-monopoly disputes in China’s courts,and jointly contribute to the successfully implementation of the anti-monopoly law.