Competition Law Analysis Of Subsidy Phenomenon In Internet Finance Sector

The subsidy phenomenon has been existing for a long time in internet finance sector,especially in P2P network loan areas,third party payment areas and so on,in the forms of freshman pocket money,experience money,interests-increasing coupon,etc.This kind of subsidy,which can be seen as a new means of pricing competition,will directly affect competition opportunities of other operators and affect the long-term interests of financial consumers.Moreover,it will lead to a negative competition trend and interfere normal market competition rules.Although financial regulatory agencies have adopted documents such as Guiding Opinions on Promoting the Sound Development of Internet Finance and Notice on Issuing the Implementation Plan for Special Rectification on Risks in Internet Finance to express their regulatory attitudes,this type of phenomenon is still common,and there have been few relevant cases of regulatory enforcement.The relevant discussion in the academic community is also lacking.So,This article focuses on the subsidy phenomenon in the field of internet finance and strives to conduct in-depth thinking and analysis of this issue,from the perspective of cross-combination of financial law and competition law.This article is divided into four parts.The first part gives an overview of internet finance and its subsidy phenomenon,summarizes the meaning and classification of internet finance,and points out that internet finance has the characteristics of universality,high risk and network externality.What’s more,this part also defines the concept of subsidy behavior in the internet finance sector,classifies subsidy behavior according to the criteria,strength,and probability and analyzes the causes of subsidy phenomenon from the perspective of market characteristics,product characteristics,industry conditions and so on.The second part discusses the necessity of using competition law to regulate the subsidy behavior in the internet finance field.It mainly analyzes the actual needs of regulation from the perspective of consumer’s interest,operator’s interests,and the balance between short-term and long-term effects on market competition order.The status quo of legislation and the current status of law enforcement which expound the current regulatory dilemma can also be a reason of using competition law.The third part is the discussion on the supervision concept of the subsidy behavior in the internet finance field.From the perspective of financial law,it is necessary to leave room for the innovation of internet finance,but also to take into account the healthy development of the field;from the perspective of competition law,it is reasonable to uphold the principle of appropriate intervention for price competition.Therefore,for the subsidy-type competition in the field of internet finance,the concept of "legal supervision" and "moderate supervision" should be adopted.The fourth part specifically discusses how to apply the rules of competition law to regulate the subsidy behavior.To be specific,it can be regulated by the misleading advertising clause,the unfair prize sale clause or the predatory pricing clause.In addition,if the subsidy behavior really disturbs the market competition order while the aforementioned provisions aren’t applicable,it can be ruled by the general provision of Anti-Unfair Competition Law.