Research On The Regulation Of Vertical Price Monopoly Agreements In The Chinese Anti-monopoly Law

Price monopoly agreement is one of the key targets of the Antitrust Law,which can be divided into Horizontal price monopoly agreement and Vertical price monopoly agreement.Horizontal price monopoly agreement is a price agreement between competitors,which has great adverse effect on the market.Therefore,it is usually adapted to illegal per se rule,that is,it is subject to the anti-monopoly law regulation.However,vertical price monopoly agreements not only have the effect on restricting competition,but also on promoting competition.Therefore,there are different characteristics of the legal application of vertical price monopoly agreements compared to horizontal pricing monopoly agreements.The "Anti-monopoly Law" of our country,which was put into effect since 2008,is not only not specific to the agreement on vertical price monopoly,but also has very short experience of the legal application.This paper attempts to analyze the actual application of China's vertical price monopoly agreement and find out the reasons for the lack of legal regulation of the vertical price monopoly agreement and the differences in the application of law between the administrative law enforcement agencies and the judiciary.Advices on the improvement of vertical price monopoly agreement regulations will also be given in this paper.This paper will start from the following three aspects: The first part will put forward the questions,which is the foundation of this article.First of all,reach a conclusion that there are two different analytical methods in judicial and law enforcement levels and there are many deficiencies and contradictions in the regulation of the agreement on vertical price monopoly in our country through a more detailed legal analysis of the cases of "Rui Bang v Johnson & Johnson" and "Guizhou Maotai v Yibin Wuliangye".Secondly,put forward many defects and dilemmas in the theory and legislation of China's vertical price monopoly agreement in terms of several parts.For example,conflicts in the analysis methods,the over-simple type of behavior stipulated by the law,the unreasonable bottom clause,the over-strict standard of exemption and the insufficient operability.The second part,the analysis of the problem,is the core of this paper.Firstly,identify the vertical price monopoly agreements,and put forward the relevant factors that need to be considered to identify such agreements.Secondly,as the effectof the vertical price monopoly agreement on restricting competition is not obvious directly and has disputes,in this paper,economic analysis of the vertical price monopoly agreement and its concrete manifestation are carried out.Specifically,of which the positive and negative effects are analyzed in detail.Thirdly,analyze and compare the international theories,relevant laws and regulations and cases,and provide a reference for the legal regulation of vertical price monopoly agreement in our country through the detailed demonstration of the advantages and disadvantages of the two principles: illegal per se rule and the principle of rationalization.The third part is the focus of this paper.Firstly,different legal analysis methods should be applied to different forms of monopoly agreements and the reasons will be expounded.For example,the application of vertical lowest price monopoly agreements is based on the need to improve the efficiency of review,the high cost of examination and the above two behaviors have a great influence on the restriction of competition,but in order to consider the dispute in a single case,the principle of presumption of illegality is adopted,and adopt the form of "general enumeration exemption" in regulation.However,the negative effect of limiting the maximum resale price and price recommendation is relatively small,but it will be abused maliciously so the reasonable principle should be applied.The second is to build a unified review mechanism to refine the judgment criteria that eliminate and limit the effectiveness of competition.Assuring the steps in reviewing and analyzing the cases,if the first stage of the standard is not reached,it can be regarded as legal.If reached,proceed to the next step of the determination to improve the efficiency of the review.Make refinement in terms of the impact of competition limitation of parties,market share,subjective malignancy and relevant factors.