Research On The Identification Of Predatory Pricing Of Internet Platform Operators

Predatory pricing is one of the key actions regulated by anti-monopoly law.As a new economic model,the Internet platform economy plays an increasingly important role in China's market economy.Internet platform operators are the main players in the platform market that are constrained by two-sided market competition.In the Internet platform market,low-priced behaviors that are suspected of predatory pricing occur from time to time.The development of Industrial Organization Theory provides an economic tool for antitrust regulation of Internet platform operators9 predatory pricing.Under the new economic model,how to combine the new economic theory to effectively distinguish the legitimate low-priced competition and illegal predatory pricing of platform operators has become a major issue.The Internet platform is a virtual platform based on Internet technology to facilitate transactions between two-sided or multi-sided users.The Internet platform market has the features of two-sided market characteristics and significant network effects.These characteristics make the market environment in which Internet platform operators are located distinct from the traditional market.Although low-cost competitive behaviors such as free or cross-subsidization of Internet platform operators may have certain legitimacy due to the special market environment,it does not rule out the predatory pricing behavior that should be subjected to antitrust condemnation in the Internet platform market.The predatory pricing of Internet platform operators may jeopardize technological innovation,fair competition order,and the legitimate rights and interests of consumers.In order to maintain the healthy development of the Internet platform economy,it is necessary to regulate predatory pricing behavior.In the Internet platform economy,the difficulty in determining the market dominant position of behavior subject,the difficulty in judging the behavior below the cost,the obscure of the business intention,and the complexity of the damage constitute the particularity of the determination of platform operator's predatory pricing.Due to that particularity,China's existing predatory pricing identification standards are difficult to fully apply to the Internet platform economy.There are some shortcomings in the practice of predatory pricing recognition for Internet platform operators in China.Therefore,perfecting the definition theory of predatory pricing in China is of great significance for correctly regulating the predatory pricing behavior of Internet platform operators.In the field of the predatory pricing of Internet platform operators,some experiences accumulated by the United States and the European Union have brought useful enlightenment to regulate the predatory pricing beha'vior of Internet platform operators in China.On this basis,China should improve the predatory pricing of Internet platform operators from the four components of subject,behavior,intention and consequence.In the subject element,it is necessary to correct the traditional relevant market definition methods and innovate the idea of market dominance determination to correctly define the market dominance of Internet platform operators.In the behavior requirement,the method of identify sale behavior under cost price should be improved and the judgment of loss compensation should not be made only by the possibility of price increase,so as to effectively judge the below-cost sales behavior of Internet platform operators.In the intent element,we should pay attention to the position of the predatory intention in the predatory pricing illegality determination,and clarify the way of judging the Internet platform operators'predatory intention,to pierce the reasonable cloak of predatory pricing.In the element of the consequences,the analysis of the damage consequences should be improved,while balancing the value objectives of the Internet economy anti-monopoly,and coordinating the conflict between the competition effects,in order to truly achieve the protection of competition.