Antitrust Regulations Of Exclusive Dealing On Internet Platforms

Exclusive Dealing refers to the behavior that one business operator restricts the freedom of transactions of other businesses,including the subject,object,and trading means.In the traditional market,based on the trust and the considerations investment cost,exclusive transactions are recognized to bring economic efficiency,but there is also a competitive risk of reducing intra-brand competition and market division,and promoting price discrimination.The Internet industry has network externalities and user lock-in effects.Exclusive dealings between platforms companies and business exclude the multi-homing of platforms.The anti-competitive effects are amplified,which making it easier for the platform to obtain and maintain a certain market dominance,increasing the user stickiness and the switching cost,and ultimately harming consumer interests and fair competition order.Exclusive dealing in traditional industries generally regulated by the abuse of market dominance in Anti-monopoly Law,while on Internet platforms,E-commerce Law,Anti-Unfair Competition Law,Anti-monopoly Law all have the related regulations.However,in practice,Articles 22 and 35 of the" E-commerce Law "are difficult to implement due to the unclear definition of" dominant market position" and the lack of substantive evidence.Article 12 of the Anti-Unfair Competition Law also has certain limitations in the application due to the difficulty in identifying technical means.Although the definition of relevant market is more complicated,the determination of market dominance and abuse have changed to varying degrees,but Anti-monopoly Law can be flexibly applied.When the platforms and business operators sign an explicit exclusive dealing agreement,it can be regulated as a monopoly agreement.When there is no explicit agreement between the platforms and the business operators,and the behavior has a substantial impact on competition,the analysis of the abuse of market dominance can still apply.On January 2,2020,Article 21(2)of the "Revision Draft of the" Antitrust Law "(Public Consultation Draft)issued by the State Administration of Market Supervision stated that when an operator in the Internet field is deemed to have a dominant market position,factors such as network effects,economies of scale,lock-in effects,and the ability to master and process relevant data should also be considered.It is not necessary to define the relevant market at this time,the focus is on the identification and analysis of behavior.Judging from the measures taken by major antitrust jurisdictions to cope with the questions from Internet platform,except in a few countries,some rules have been revised,most just conducts flexible handling in the implement of antitrust laws.Considering the new market competition brought by technological development,when responding to the new business format,China should appropriately strengthen preadministrative guidance,improve the management capabilities,and accountability for the supervision responsibility,taka into consider of giving the platform self-regulatory responsibilities.And the commercial rationality and efficiency defense should also be considered,so as to balance the rights and interests of all parties,maintain well market order,promote the higher quality of development of the Internet platform economy,and better serve the overall national economic.