Antitrust Regulation Of Loyalty Discounts

Loyalty discounts clauses behaviour is a common kind of competition tool in market economy,and it also attract the much attention of antitrust laws.Loyalty discounts refers to the fact that when the buyer makes a certain purchase commitment,the enterprise provide a certain discount.Loyalty discounts have multiple discount types and manifestation.On one hand,loyalty discounts help enterprise achieve economies of scale and scope and ultimately benefit consumers.On the other hand,under particular conditions,loyalty discounts behaviour will disrupt the competitive order,destroy the competitive state,and cause damage to customers and other competitors.At present,China's attention and research on loyalty discounts behaviour are still at initial stage.Under China's anti-monopoly law system,the “Anti-Monopoly Law" provides several situation in which an enterprise abuses its market power.According the existing laws in China,although the unlawful loyalty discount behaviour can be regulated by the miscellaneous provisions,the nature and expression characteristics of loyalty discounts are complicated,and loyalty discounts behaviour should not simply be attributed to some types of abuse of market power behaviours.In addition,there are no corresponding rules on the content,nature,and identification standards of loyalty discounts.Therefore,it is necessary to conduct research on loyalty discounts and conduct antitrust regulation on loyalty discounts behaviour that has a significant adverse effect on competition.The antitrust regulation practice and experience of European and American about loyalty discounts behaviour have been developed for a long time.The positive and negative effects of the loyalty discount behaviour on competition can be clearly defined,and review principles and rules of review of the illegality of loyalty discount behaviour are established in law enforcement.By analyzing and drawing on European and American regulatory experience,it is of great significance for China to establish an anti-monopoly regulatory system.In addition to the introduction and conclusion,this paper is mainly divided into four parts.The first chapter introduces the connotation and characteristics and the basic theory of the type and nature of loyalty discount behaviour.This part first explores the economic characteristics and connotation of the behavior of loyalty discount by analyzing the definition of the behavior of loyalty discount terms at the legal level.Secondly,the loyalty discount behavior is distinguished from the four exclusive monopoly behaviors of exclusive purchase agreements,tying behaviors,predatory pricing behaviors,and price discriminatory behaviors through factors such as expressions,constituent elements,and so on.Then r introduces two different ways of analogies of behavioral nature of loyalty discount behaviour.The second chapter mainly analyzes the predicament of the application of the loyalty discount behaviour and the elements of illegality determination under the framework of China's anti-monopoly law.First of all,by analyzing the laws and regulations related to the loyalty discount clauses behavior and abuse of market dominant position under China's anti-monopoly law,and analyzing the case of Tetra Pak,this paper then analyzes three problems at the handling of illegal loyalty discount clauses behaviour in China.After clarifying the regulatory troubles in China,the clarification of illegal standards must first discuss the factors that we need to consider under the framework of antitrust law when determining whether the loyalty discount clauses behaviour is illegal.For the analysis the act of the abuse of market dominant position,we should pay attention to the corporate market power and the abuse of loyalty discount terms.The third chapter is about the research on the system of unlawful of behaviour of the loyalty discounts in European and American.Due to the influence of different economic theories,the development trend and specific content of antitrust regulation principles and recognition rules about loyalty discounts behaviour in European and American are different.Therefore,this section first introduces the development of principles of illegal principles and reasonable principles between European and American.Then compare the two identification principles,and analyze the price-cost test in the United States and the equally efficient competitor test in the European Union,and discuss their respective rationality and limitations.Finally,these papers introduces the European and American courts and enforcement agencies' acceptance of the defense reasons for the behaviour of loyalty discount and then introduce the practice of establishing a safe harbor for companies with loyalty discount behaviour.The fourth chapter discusses how to establish antitrust regulation system in China.The last part is the summary of the above content,in response to the predicament mentioned above,through the improvement of the legal provisions of the loyalty discount behaviour,the establishment of a law enforcement review system of the loyalty discount behaviour and the establishment of a corporate behavior guidebook,the three measures under the framework of China's antitrust law,a localized loyalty discount clause behavior regulation system is established.