Research On Legal Regulation Of Hub And Spoke Monopoly Agreement

The hub and spoke monopoly agreement is a new form of monopoly agreement,which contains the horizontal and vertical relations in the traditional monopoly agreement,and has a special horizontal vertical composite structure.In general,the hub and spoke monopoly agreement consists of one operator at the axis and several hub and spoke operators at the periphery of the axis.Among them,several spokes operators are operators with competitive relationship in the same relevant market,and the axis operators are the common trading counterparts located in the upstream or downstream of several spokes operators.The hub and spoke monopoly agreement is reached through bilateral communication and exchange between the axis operators and each spoke operator.It usually represents a series of vertical agreements.As a result,several peripheral spokes operators engaged in parallel and consistent vertical behavior based on the same agreement content,resulting in a horizontal anti competitive effect in the relevant market.What's more,a number of spokes operators did not reach a series of agreements in isolation and by chance,but indirectly achieved some kind of communication or information exchange through axis operators.According to the relevant theory and practice,the hub and spoke monopoly agreements are often embodied in a series of exclusive agreements,resale price maintenance agreements and so on.The regulation of monopoly agreement is based on the evaluation of competition impact,while the application of the principle of violation and the principle of reasonable analysis is the result of the pursuit of regulation efficiency.Therefore,the legal regulation of the hub and spoke monopoly agreement should first pay attention to the evaluation of competition impact and the applicable analysis methods.In this regard,the second chapter tries to give the answer,that is,the hub and spoke monopoly agreement usually has a serious negative impact confirmed by relevant regulatory experience,which should be restricted by its own illegal principle.However,such rational factors as market structure,bargaining power distribution,information exchange,and the difference between intra brand and inter brand competition should still be given due attention through specific institutional arrangements.For the specific identification of the hub and spoke monopoly agreement,the paper thinks that the hub and spoke monopoly agreement is more similar to the cooperative behavior in the behavior type,and the latter has more uncertainty than the former,and its constitutive framework can achieve a more adequate identification of the former.On this basis,the paper will focus on four aspects of the identification of the hub and spoke monopoly agreement,namely,the horizontal vertical multiple subjects,the objective parallel vertical behavior,the horizontal vertical indirect meaning connection,and the auxiliary investigation of economic factors.Among them,the two-stage proof method is adopted for the horizontal vertical indirect meaning connection.In the aspect of specific sanction measures,the paper thinks that anti-monopoly administrative law enforcement should be taken as the main implementation path,supplemented by private litigation,and administrative measures,civil measures and criminal measures should be taken comprehensively on the basis of highlighting their respective characteristics and advantages.Meanwhile,reasonable safe harbor rules and leniency system should be optimized to finally realize the effective sanction of the central radiation monopoly agreement.