Antitrust Law Regulation Of Joint Boycott Of Trade Associations In China

In order to exclude competitors or transaction objects,industry associations organize members of the association to carry out boycotts,which not only directly damages the interests of the boycotted,but may also damage the interests of third parties,and will also cause serious damage to a free and fair market environment and harm the welfare of consumers.It can be seen that the boycott of industry associations is seriously harmful,but our Anti-Monopoly Law provides more principles for boycotts of industry associations:Firstly,the concept and nature of industry associations are not defined.Industry associations are generally recognized as industry managers or public affairs managers,but in some cases,when industry associations directly participate in market competition as market entities,they should be recognized as operators.However,due to the unclear description of the relationship between industry associations and operators in our anti-monopoly law,the law enforcement agencies did not treat industry associations as operators in practice,which eventually led to the wrong application of the law.Secondly,boycotts have broad and narrow meanings.Our anti-monopoly law places them under a horizontal monopoly agreement,which means that the resisters are limited to operators with horizontal competition.When the resisters are vertical transactions In the case of a relationship,the application of the law presents difficulties.Thirdly,there is a lack of clear provisions in the legislation regarding the criteria for judging the illegality of boycotts by industry associations,resulting in excessive discretionary powers of law enforcement agencies,resulting in inconsistent law enforcement practices.Finally,regarding the legal responsibility for the boycott of industry associations,our anti-monopoly law is too general,and it is not clear whether to impose single or double punishment on industry associations and operators.The administrative responsibility setting is unreasonable,and the amount of punishment lacks a gradient design.There is also a lack of relevant civil liability provisions.In view of the above problems,through the study of relevant foreign systems and cases,it has certain inspiration for the revision and enforcement of my country’s anti-monopoly law.First of all,the concept of industry associations should be clearly defined.In practice,law enforcement agencies should accurately identify the roles played by industry associations in specific behaviors.Secondly,the legal characterization of boycotts should be redone to cover all types of boycotts in practice.Thirdly,specific judgment criteria should be given for the illegality of boycotts to facilitate the correct application of the law by law enforcement agencies in practice.At the same time,special exemption conditions should be provided for the main body of the industry association.Finally,a reasonable responsibility system should be set up for the boycott of industry associations,so as to better regulate the relevant behaviors of industry associations.