Research On Anti-monopoly Civil Public Insterest Litigation

Anti-monopoly civil public interest litigation refers to the action brought by the subject of the law to the people's court in order to safeguard the public interest for acts with the effect of excluding and restricting competition.The influence of monopoly behavior is extensive,and the majority of monopoly acts will harm the public interest,such as horizontal monopoly agreements.On the face of it,a horizontal monopoly agreement is an agreement between a certain number of operators;"However,in practice,if the agreement has the effect of a monopoly market,the agreement will lead to the erosion of the free competition rights and interests of thousands of other small operators,and because of the lack of competition in the market,consumers are unable to choose the most suitable consumption in an effective market,and can only defer to the arrangement of horizontal monopoly agreements," Choose between consumption and not consumption,but not choose how to consume,under what price to consume.Although the subject stomped by monopoly behavior is very wide,but often no one is willing to stand up for their rights,the public interest is even more indifferent.In order to avoid the emergence of monopoly behavior,protect the free competition of the market,the countries of the world began to explore the search for new litigation mode.One of the legislative purposes of the Anti-monopoly Law of the People's Republic of China(the "Anti-monopoly Law")is to protect the public interest,but the law does not provide for anti-monopoly civil public interest litigation.Although Civil Procedure Law in 2012 added Article55 to the law,which pioneered the history of public interest litigation,the law does not provide a basis for anti-monopoly civil public interest litigation.Although the 2014 Law of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of Consumer Rights and Interests(the "Consumer Rights protection law")provides that the relevant consumer associations may sue for the legitimate rights and interests of many consumers,because the horizontal economic field involved in monopoly cannot be covered,so even if eligible consumer associations bring anti-monopoly civil public litigation,the effect is very limited.In 2017,the Civil Procedure Law was amended to add a second paragraph under the provisions of the original Article 55 public interest litigation,that is,when a public interest action may be brought by an organ and relevant organization without legal provisions,the People's Procuratorate may bring a public interest action.It provides the possibility and feasibility for the People's Procuratorate to bring anti-monopoly civil public interest litigation in the future.The purpose of anti-monopoly civil public interest litigation is to regulate the monopoly behavior of market operators so as to protect other operators to enter the market freely,to remove the obstacles that restrict the free competition of other operators,and ultimately to maintain the free competition of the market and protect the rights and interests of consumers.China's anti-monopoly civil public interest litigation is still in the embryonic stage,the system is not very perfect.State organs such as procuratorial organs shall have the plaintiff's qualifications,because the procuratorial organ always represents the interests of the state,and should be able to initiate any form of civilpublic interest litigation.In addition,the law should broaden the scope of social organizations that can bring civil public interest litigation,and individuals who have no interest in the case should not have the plaintiff's qualification,otherwise the already burdened court system will be on the verge of collapse.Individuals with an interest in the case may bring an antitrust civil public interest action,but a system needs to be put in place to prevent abuse.The burden of proof of the original defendant is allocated according to the constituent elements of three different types of monopoly acts,and the burden of proof of the plaintiff is reduced accordingly.The purpose is to safeguard the public interest,it is not reasonable to ask him to pay the litigation fee,and special litigation fee liability rules and incentive mechanism should be set up.