The Study On Leniency Policy In Antitrust Law

Cartel behavior is commonly regarded as the behavior with the maximum harm in all anti-competition behavior.It restricts related market competition,impedes economic development and damages interest of consumers seriously.Leniency system provides effective policy tool for Cartel law enforcement.It makes use of "prisoner" psychology of joint doers and strives to make them become "informers",which destroys the stability of Cartel behavior and improves the efficiency of checking Cartel behavior.Leniency system is of important significance for discovering,investigating and handling illegal Cartel behavior timely.Till today,China and other countries and regions have set up leniency systems for Cartel behavior.China's"anti-monopoly law" Article 46 of the second established the system.Regulations of our anti-monopoly leniency system are too general and abstract;obviously,they do not reach corresponding legislation effect.In view of this,the author has analyzed and discussed general theory of leniency system,foreign leniency system and their advanced experiences as well as problems existed in the execution of our leniency system objectively and comprehensively on the basis of massive collections of literature both at home and abroad.It is expected to propose some countermeasures for the improvement of our leniency system.The text of this article first makes some brief explanations for anti-monopoly leniency system from the aspects of generation and development of anti-monopoly leniency system,regulatory objects and cause of formation,exploration and analysis of theoretical basis and system value etc.Followed by is field investigation for our anti-monopoly leniency system,it analyzes the current legislation situation and content system of our anti-monopoly leniency system and then analyzes the shortages of our leniency system,including the absence of specific conditions and procedures for the leniency system,extremely narrow scope of applicable objects of leniency system,light punishment for agreement monopoly,"decentralized" law enforcement mode weakening the effect of leniency system,shortages existing in leniency treatment,conflicts exist between traditional culture concept and leniency system.The third part mainly elaborates the international experience of anti-monopoly leniency system.This part sorts out leniency system in America,European Union,Japan and other countries and regions and then summarizes the advanced experience that is worthy of our reference.Lastly,five aspects of improvement measures have been proposed through reality investigation of our leniency system and analysis of its shortages as well as references of overseas leniency system,including refining leniency system,strengthening liability punishment system strictly,improving construction for anti-monopoly law enforcement institution,regulating leniency treatment reasonably and constructing external environment for the effective execution of leniency system.