Research On The Laws And Regulations Of Monopoly Behavior Of Natural Gas Enterprises In Towns

Urban gas enterprises belong to the public utilities.On one hand,urban gas enterprises have the public welfare characteristics of public works infrastructure industry construction services;on the other hand,urban gas enterprises bear the operational pressure of self-financing.The contradiction of how to balance the financial and public interest,how to realize the operational profit and fulfill social responsibility at the same time,has been existing since the market reform of urban gas enterprises.The urban gas industry has a natural monopoly characteristic.A series of unfair competition behavior using monopolistic advantages has appeared in the operation of business activities in the urban gas enterprises,and has damaged the public interest at certain level,destroyed normal order of market competition,which is not conducive to the overall healthy development of the industry.Based on the analysis of the causes of monopoly phenomenon,this article is to study on how to regulate the monopoly phenomenon effectively through legislation,law enforcement and justice etc.,and how to guide and promote the healthy and orderly development of urban gas industry.The first part of this article introduces the reform and development of urban gas enterprises in recent years and the current market structure.And the historical development and current status of the natural monopoly phenomenon in urban gas industry are expounded,leading to background of current monopoly operation of urban gas enterprises.The second part illustrates the monopoly phenomenon in operation of urban gas enterprises in China,including various excessive charges,unreasonable trading conditions and specific compulsory trading behavior in the operation of urban gas enterprises,and introduces the situation of actual law enforcement through the actual cases.The third part analyzes the fundamental reason that causing the monopoly phenomenon of urban gas enterprises and the current status as well as insufficiency of current practicing legal regulation.There's a lack of industrial legitimation in urban gas industry as of today.The urban gas enterprises obtain the monopoly position in operation by acquiring franchise rights;however,the lack of competition exit mechanism easily leads to the improper business behavior taking the advantage of monopoly position.Also,the lack of anti-monopoly enforcement in urban gas enterprises,result the repeated occurring of monopoly phenomenon and weak regulation.The fourth part proposes relevant legal regulations to address the issue of insufficiency of legal regulations in urban gas industry mentioned in the above.First of all,it's necessary to improve the industry legislation,regulating the business behavior through laws,bringing more competitive and diversified business modes at the same time of regulating the monopoly phenomenon,to guide the urban gas enterprises seeking for profits from management and diversified competition.Secondly,according to the institutional reform of the state council,the powers of anti-monopoly law enforcement is now uniformly exercised by the market supervision department.A set of practical law enforcement procedures and management mechanism shall be established and improved to improve law enforcement efficiency.It's necessary to improve the professionalism as the level of law enforcement of anti-monopoly personnel is uneven.And it's necessary to improve the judicial supervision of anti-monopoly enforcement to promote the improvement of anti-monopoly enforcement level.Lastly,it's necessary to promote the improvement of industry policies continuously,promote the reform and development of franchise system,improve the competition exit mechanism,to make the urban gas enterprises develop in the competition,coordinate under the policies and regulations,to guide the positive,healthy and orderly development of the urban gas industry.