The Legal Regulation Of Vertical Price-fixing Agreement In Automobile Market In China

Since the reform and opening up,China's automobile market has developed by leaps and bounds.China's automobile production and sales have been ranked first in the world for a long time,and the automobile industry has become China's iconic industry,supporting the development of China's national economy.As a manifestation of monopoly agreements,vertical price monopoly agreements have always been one of the key regulations of national anti-monopoly law.The "Anti-Monopoly Law of the People's Republic of China"(hereinafter referred to as the "Anti-Monopoly Law")officially promulgated by China in 2008 also made corresponding provisions on the vertical price monopoly agreement.Vertical monopoly agreements are not well recognized in practice because of their positive and negative effects.However,the harm of restricting the competition effect of the vertical price monopoly agreement is extremely serious.This is particularly evident in the case that many auto companies in the auto industry have been punished since 2014,and the auto industry has long formed an inherent operating standard.The application of the norms has also aggravated the vertical price monopoly agreements of automobile suppliers at different levels.The existence of these conditions has made China's anti-monopoly law enforcement difficult.There are three main reasons for the formation of the vertical price monopoly agreement in China's auto market.On the one hand,the imbalance of legal regulation,the most important manifestation is that "the implementation method of automobile brand sales management" has been implemented here for more than ten years,and the drawbacks have obviously had a profound impact on China's automobile market.Secondly,the automobile dealers represent the image of the entire automobile company.In order to better maintain their brand image,the automobile manufacturers actively control the dealers through price means.Third,4S stores have high investment costs and strong dependence on automobile brands,forming a stable dealer-dependent manufacturer relationship.In view of the above reasons,it is recommended to promote and improve various distribution models of the automobile market on the basis of the "Automobile Sales Management Measures"(hereinafter referred to as the "New Measures"),thus achieving the purpose of balancing the status of producers and distributors.At the same time,the identification criteria and punishment rules of the vertical price monopoly agreement are clarified,and the law enforcement rules of the vertical price monopoly agreement in the automobile market are optimized on the basis of guaranteeing the right of defense of the market participants.Finally,it is necessary to improve the regulation of the vertical price monopoly agreement in the automobile market by improving the supporting systems such as the exemption system and the private anti-monopoly litigation system,and promote the good and long-term development of the automobile market in China.