Research On The Allocation Of Competition Enforcement Power

The Fourth Plenary Session of the 19 th CPC Central Committee clearly made a strategic plan to "strengthen the basic position of competition policy,implement a fair competition review system,and improve Anti-monopoly law and Anti-unfair competition law enforcement".Competition law enforcement is a crucial part of implementing competition policy and creating a free and fair market competition environment.And the allocation of competition enforcement power is the critical aspect of strengthening competition enforcement.In recent years,academic field and practical field have been exploring ways to optimize the allocation of competition enforcement powers.Horizontally,in 2018,China carried out a major reform of the ministerial system,and centralized the enforcement power of Anti-unfair Competition Law and Anti-monopoly Law.under the Administration for Market Regulation.In November 2021,China established the National Anti-Monopoly Bureau to further enhance the independence and authority of anti-monopoly law enforcement agencies.Vertically,in the context of comprehensive law enforcement reforms,the Anti-unfair competition law enforcement power has been further subsided to the grassroots level,and Anti-monopoly law enforcement has also been delegated to the provincial level.However,there are still many problems in the allocation of competition law enforcement power in China,which need to be solved urgently.In terms of horizontal configuration,first of all,the authority of competition law enforcement agencies is not enough that are vulnerable to pressure from more powerful industry authorities during law enforcement,and it is difficult to ensure the objectivity and fairness of law enforcement results.Secondly,conflict of enforcement is easy to happen as both the administration of market regulation and the industry regulator have the right to supervise the operator in regulated industries.Thirdly,cooperation mechanism of Competition law enforcement is not perfect in China,and there is no effective synergy of supervision for cross-departmental and cross-regional cases.In terms of vertical configuration,under the background of comprehensive law enforcement reform in China,the power of Anti-unfair competition law enforcement has delegated to the grassroots level,and the grassroots administration for Market Regulation are faced with the excessive enforcement tasks.Meanwhile though the power of Antitrust law enforcement is owned by central and provincial levels,the enforcement force is still not sufficient to meet the current law enforcement needs.And the lacking of professionalism in law enforcement officer is also a big problem in competition law enforcement.In order to solve the above problems,this paper mainly puts forward suggestion from the following aspects.Firstly,we should build a coordinated supervision allocation system of competition law enforcement power,in horizontal configuration,realizing the separation of supervision before,during and after the event,and give full play to the role of the coordination mechanism of competition law enforcement.Secondly,it is necessary to improve the integration of allocation system of competition law enforcement power in vertical configuration,giving play to the role of higher-level competition law enforcement agencies in guiding and supervising lower-level ct agencies.Finally,the relevant supporting regulations and system construction should be improved.The consistency and coordination between laws should be enhanced,and the supply of professional competition law enforcement talents should be guaranteed.