Antitrust Enforcements Of Monopoly Agreements In Automotive Industry Of Major Jurisdictions And The Inspirations In Compliance Governance

It is a focus area for the antitrust enforcement agencies of different countries to penalize the antitrust agreements.The advancement of the technology makes it more and more difficult to uncover the anti-competition coordination.In the competitive global automotive market,there have been quite a few companies which violated the competition laws.The thesis starts to talk about the different forms of horizontal and vertical agreements.With a summary of all the 29 antitrust enforcement cases in U.S.,EU and China during the period from 2014 to 2016,the thesis provides with an analysis and a summary of the characteristics of the cases themselves and the enforcement actions that were carried out by the antirust agencies.In March 2016,the China NDRC published a notice to collect public opinions on the Antitrust Guideline for Automotive Industry(“China Guideline”).The Guideline has not yet been released.The thesis provides with a comparative analysis with two guideline documents related to automotive industry released by European Commission in 2010.The thesis also raises some revision suggestions to the China Guideline.The China MOFCOM organized a press conference on April 14,2017,releasing the Automobile Sales Administration Procedures.The old Administration of Automobile Brand Sales Implementation Procedure,which has been used for more than ten years was repealed.This indicated the determination of authority to break down the single authorization,challenge the 4S shop model and promote the independent distributors and the maintenance and repair providers in order to promote the competitions in automobile and after-market sales.Last but not least,in order to address the concerns from companies in the automotive industry on the antitrust compliance topic,the thesis provides some practical thoughts from two angles,including the establishment of a compliance management system internally in the company and external monitoring environment by authorities.It is also in line with the “Go Global” strategy by the Chinese government.It is expected that such proposals could help Chinese companies,especially those automotive companies which either are operating or plan to operate globally.