Research On Anti-monopoly Regulations Of Hub And Spoke Agreement

The anti-monopoly law has improved the efficiency of the enforcement of monopoly agreements,making the collusion between operators more and more concealed.The type of agreement in business activities is no longer a simple horizontal agreement or vertical agreement,but an untyped monopoly agreement-hub and spoke agreement,which not only attracts competing competitors to participate,but also attracts Its common supplier(or retailer).The hub-and-spoke agreement in this article refers to a new type of agreement reached by upstream and downstream operators that is independent of horizontal and vertical monopoly agreements,but has both of these two forms of agreement.As a new type of agreement,the hub and spoke agreement is different from the traditional horizontal and vertical agreements:The main body of the hub-and-spoke agreement involves both the hub and the rim.Regardless of whether the upstream operator or the downstream operator is the hub,the legal relationship led and diverged by it spans both upstream and downstream stages.Among them,there is a clear vertical agreement relationship between the Axis operator and multiple rim operators.Based on this,it can be inferred that the Axis operator has a subjective intention to reach or implement the vertical agreement.As for whether the rim operator has a clear attitude towards the competitors at the same level of the agreement from the axis,it needs to be grasped in accordance with the specific case.The typical performance of hub and spoke agreement is that several vertical agreements and one horizontal agreement exist at the same time.That is,the axis operator has reached several vertical agreements with multiple rim operators by means of matchmaking,liaison or assistance,and because the rim operators themselves are at the same level,a clear or potential horizontal agreement is formed.Because of the emergence of the hub and spoke agreement,it is difficult to continue to apply the traditional division model and analytical thinking of the monopoly agreement.In practice,cases involving hub and spoke factors have already existed,but they cannot be well regulated.Then the theoretical analysis of the connotation and anti-competitive effects of the hub and spoke agreement has become the prerequisite and basis for legal regulation of it.Through the analysis of the specific case,the current situation of the hub and spoke agreement is explored,and the difficulties and deficiencies of the legal regulation are found,and the regulatory difficulties of the hub and spoke agreement are summarized,which are mainly manifested in the following aspects: the choice of law enforcement basis faces difficulties,and the determination of illegality There are disagreements and the allocation of legal responsibilities of the subjects in the hub-and-spoke agreement is not clear.Because of the particularity of the nature of the hub and spoke agreement and the duality of the subject,and there are many uncertainties in the process of exploring the facts of the hub and spoke agreement and the suspected liaison behavior between the wheel operator,which complicates the determination of illegality.Whether different legal entities in the corresponding hub and spoke agreement should bear the same kind of legal liability and whether the form of legal liability needs to be expanded is also worth studying.In the face of the above problems,on the premise of ensuring the stability of the legal system,seek a more reasonable and efficient method of regulating the hub and spoke agreement.That is,on the basis of recognizing the hub and spoke agreement as the third type of agreement,special legal regulations can be established to regulate it,and it can be activated by clarifying the subject of the agreement,the anti-competitive effect,the behavior of the agreement,and the causal relationship between the behavior and the effect.Application of general terms.At the same time,it insists on regulating hub and spoke agreements,with the attitude of "principle prohibition,exception exemption".Then,the method,severity,and type of liability of the parties involved in the agreement are determined based on the harshness of the behavior of the parties involved in the agreement,the impact on competition and other factors.