Research On Loyalty Discount From The Perspective Of Antitrust Law

As a means of competition which is ubiquitous in the market,Loyalty discount is the product of market competition.With the process of market integration,the evolving economic behavior makes China inevitably face the competition behavior of loyalty discounts.Especially since the State Administration for Industry and Commerce imposed a penalty decision on the Tetra Pak case in 2016,the loyalty discount has been increasingly concerned by the anti-monopoly community.From the analysis of the foreign theory and cases,it can be shown that the loyalty discount has two sides.Generally speaking,as a common economic behavior,it has the advantage of improving the efficiency of the enterprise,promoting economic development,and providing consumers with preferential treatment.But sometimes the dominating operator maintains or strengthens the market power by implementing the abuse discount in order to achieve the purpose of monopolizing the monopoly interests,and it has caused the restriction of competition and the adverse consequences of harming the interests of consumers.Loyalty discount has been controversial because it has become a tool for some companies to abuse their market dominance.Therefore,in judicial practice,the conditional discount imposed by the operators with market dominance are more likely to cause antitrust review and regulation because of the restrictive effect of excluding competitors.Owing to the loyalty discount behavior itself is complex,the process of determining whether it is illegal or not requires a comprehensive analysis,reasonable evaluation,to weigh the positive and negitive factors,and to conduct a comprehensive review and identification.However,due to the current research on loyalty discount is not perfect,the seriousness of the problems caused by loyalty discount has not been taken seriously.Throughout the regulation of China's loyalty discount behavior,first of all,there is still a big gap in the law.Before the promulgation of the Anti-Monopoly Law,market price issues are regulated by the relevant provisions of the Anti-Unfair Competition Law and the Price Law.However,many classic cases have proved thatloyalty discounts should belong to the anti-monopoly field.It should be regulated by the anti-monopoly law.In 2010,the National Development and Reform Commission and the State Administration for Industry and Commerce issued the “ Anti-Price Monopoly Regulations” and “Anti-Price Monopoly Administrative Enforcement Procedures Regulations ” for the first time to stipulate price discounts and link“discounts” with “abuse of market status”.It can be seen from the above laws and regulations that although legislators are aware of the impact of the discount problem,they lack more specific rules.The research on the concept,characteristics,nature,and illegal understanding of loyalty discounts only stays in a vague understanding,which lacks guiding significance in specific practical operations.Secondly,Due to fewer judicial cases and insufficient law enforcement experience,the anti-monopoly review of loyalty discounts is still in its infancy.Therefore,To face the current diversification and concealment of the competitive strategies implemented by enterprises,it is necessary to conduct an in-depth discussion on this topic from the perspective of antitrust law.We should learn from extraterritorial legislation and law enforcement experience,and contribute to the improvement of China's competition policy in terms of loyalty discounts.