Research On The Applicability Of The Theory Of Necessary Facilities In The Field Of Platform Econom

In recent years,the rapid development of the Internet economy has become an important engine of world economic development,with the emergence of giant Internet platforms such as Alibaba,Tencent and Google.While these Internet platforms make people’s lives more convenient,they have also been exposed to monopolistic problems,such as malicious "blocking" and forcing "two or one",which not only disrupted the market order of fair competition,but also infringed on the legitimate rights and interests of consumers.At the beginning of 2021,the Anti-monopoly Commission of The State Council issued the Anti-Monopoly Commission of The State Council’s Monopoly Guidelines on Platform Economy(hereinafter referred to as the Guidelines),which for the first time proposed relevant provisions on identifying Internet platforms as essential facilities.At this point,how the essential facility doctrine should be applied in the field of platform economy attracts the attention of the public.Although the Guidelines mentioned the considerations for determining that Internet platforms constitute essential facilities,which are too general to give clear guidance to actual law enforcement and justice.In addition,there is still a great controversy in the academic group about whether the essential facility doctrine should be applied in the field of platform economy.Therefore,it is necessary to explore whether it is reasonable to apply the essential facility doctrine in the field of platform economy and how to apply the essential facility doctrine,in order to provide some reference for the specific law enforcement and judicial practice in the future.The first chapter analyzes the concept of the Internet platform and the chaos of the current platform competition.It is clear that the essence of the Internet platform is a kind of economic organization form that realizes multilateral main body interaction through Internet technology,and the data and algorithms behind the platform cannot be ignored in the study of Internet platform.With the increasingly fierce market competition,the Internet platform is gradually closed,and mutual "embargo" market chaos emerges in endlessly.Then we introduce the essential facility doctrine in antitrust law and sort out the development process of the essential facility doctrine in European and American antitrust practice.Finally,the Internet platform is combined with the essential facility doctrine,and three questions should be clarified in the application of the essential facility doctrine in the field of platform economy: firstly,whether the essential facility doctrine should be applied in the field of platform economy;Secondly,how to determine the identification standard of Internet platform as essential facility;Thirdly,what legitimate reasons the operators of the required platforms can cite for refusing to open them.The second chapter analyzes the rationality of applying the essential facility doctrine in the field of platform economy.The first part responds to the doubts on the application of the essential facility doctrine.First,the Internet platform has strong publicity,similar to social infrastructure,and it is necessary to undertake certain opening obligations.Therefore,the application of essential facility doctrine will not seriously violate the freedom of contract of platform operators.Secondly,the Internet platform has the character of user lock,and the open platform can urge the platform operators to strengthen investment construction,so the application of the essential facility doctrine will not lead to the decrease of the investment intention of the platform operators.The second part focuses on the legislative purpose of anti-monopoly law.The application of the essential facility doctrine can prevent the extension of monopoly power of Internet platform,break the market barrier,so as to maintain the competition order of relevant markets.Secondly,it can ensure the full competition and innovative development of relevant markets and improve the operation efficiency of the platform economy.Finally,the application of the essential facility doctrine can meet the needs of consumers to the greatest extent,protect consumers’ free choice,and protect consumers’ welfare.Based on the analysis of the above two perspectives,it is reasonable to apply the essential facility doctrine in the field of platform economy and should be actively applied.The third chapter discusses the identification criteria of Internet platform as essential facility.It is pointed out that in the field of platform economy,the essential facilities should be judged from two perspectives: whether the Internet platform is indispensable and whether it can be copied.In the judgment of non-replicability,we should focus on whether the data owned by the platform can be replicated and clear that it is for all platform operators.If the platform is both indispensable for downstream market competition and non-replicable for all platform operators,it constitutes an essential facility.The fourth chapter analyzes the legitimate reasons that the operators of required platforms can cite for refusing to provide platforms.The paper first examines whether the legitimate reasons for refusing to open essential facilities in the traditional field can be established in the field of platform economy,and proposes that it is difficult to establish in the field of platform economy in terms of technology and facility service capacity.Then it proposes that in the field of platform economy,operators with essential platforms can put forward the following three legitimate reasons to refuse to open platforms: firstly,to meet the needs of platform autonomy,refuse to open platforms based on fair and reasonable platform autonomy norms;secondly,open platform will lead to the replacement of the core functions of the platform,seriously affecting the business interests of the platform operators;thirdly,it refuses to open the platform to protect the legitimate rights and interests of users such as privacy and personal information rights and interests.