Antitrust Regulation Of Algorithm Cartel

The rapid development of digital technology has profoundly changed people’s behavior patterns,decision-making methods and ways of communication,and has also changed the competitive landscape of the market and the strategic decision-making model of enterprises.Operators can collect and analyze massive market data through algorithms,predict market demand,and quickly make price adjustments based on market changes to improve corporate profits.However,the digital economy is not a perfect utopia.The“invisible hand” in the market may turn into the “digital hand” of the algorithm,which makes a fundamental change in the power of the market,and is likely to lead us to free competition.The opposite.With the large-scale use of algorithmic decision-making and algorithm pricing,the risk of algorithmic cartels also rises.On the one hand,the algorithm provides more means for the operator to reach and maintain the cartel agreement,effectively enhancing the stability of the cartel and promoting explicit collusion.On the other hand,the widespread use of algorithms has led to a significant increase in market transparency,increasing the risk of implied collusion.At the same time,the algorithm cartel also poses a serious challenge to the current antitrust regulations.Firstly,algorithmic techniques increase the difficulty of antitrust regulation due to its hidden and opaque nature.Secondly,the algorithm cartel does not need any form of agreement,and it is difficult for law enforcement agencies to find direct evidence to prove the intention of collusion.The method of identifying traditional monopoly agreements has great limitations.Thirdly,the auto-implementation of the cartel obscures the legal responsibility of humans and machines,and the legal cartel legal liability subject is quite controversial.Finally,pure market follow-up behavior itself is not illegal.Under the premise of increasing market transparency,implied collusion and market follow-up behavior are indistinguishable.Faced with the challenge of algorithm cartel,the relevant market definition should be included in the regulation steps of the algorithm cartel,and the illegal behavior should be inferred through the market structure.At the same time,the law enforcement agencies should also analyze the supervision scaleof the enterprise algorithm,and explain the excessive intervention to the competition and innovation.The negative impact.