Anti-monopoly is a new area of ??intellectual property protection. In recent years, my country’s relevant administrative departments and judicial organs have continued to increase anti-monopoly enforcement efforts, and have restricted Qualcomm’s use of its monopoly position when it comes to the licensing of standard essential patents. Penalties are imposed on illegal activities such as charging high fees, and domestic and foreign companies are treated equally and fairly in law enforcement, which has attracted great attention from all walks of life. The author intends to conduct research on the determination of market dominance under the background of my country's antitrust law, combined with issues related to bundled transactions (also known as tying), with a view to providing ideas for a unified adjudication path for such cases.
Definition of monopoly-related markets The subject of monopolistic behavior is market operators. Article 12 of my country’s Anti-Monopoly Law stipulates: Operators as mentioned in this law refer to natural persons engaged in the production and operation of commodities or the provision of services. , legal persons and other organizations. It can be interpreted from this that operators are the subjects participating in market competition, have direct or indirect profit-making purposes, enjoy the right to operate independently, and have independence in market operations. At the same time, determining whether a market operator is a market operator should be determined based on the objective standards of whether it engages in or participates in market behavior. In the process of judging whether an enterprise has a monopolistic market dominance, accurately defining the relevant market is the basic work that must be carried out. Only by defining the relevant market can we further define whether it has a dominant market position and whether the litigation hinders market competition and constitutes a monopoly. The purpose of defining relevant markets is to define the competitive constraints on suppliers of relevant products. This market power can make suppliers less profitable if they raise prices above competitive levels or reduce product quality. In general, the strength of competition constraints determines whether the actions of suppliers of goods will harm competition and consumers. The author believes that this can be analyzed from the following aspects. First, the connotation of the relevant market. Relevant markets are also called specific markets. To determine the relevant markets, two core elements, product and region, need to be considered. Paragraph 2 of Article 12 of my country’s Anti-Monopoly Law stipulates: The relevant market referred to in this Law refers to the scope of commodities and geographical scope in which operators compete for specific commodities or services (hereinafter collectively referred to as commodities) within a certain period of time. Secondly, the starting point for product market definition. The starting point for product market definition is the substitutability of products. Determining the product market needs to be measured from the perspective of consumers. All products that are substitutes for the operator's products should be included, that is, products that compete with each other or an operator's arbitrary pricing due to the existence of the product. capabilities are limited. Third, defining the relevant market is mainly by examining factors such as the price, physical characteristics, uses of different goods or services, as well as the consumption habits and preferences of demanders, and paying attention to the cross-elasticity of demand and supply.
Determination of market dominance The definition of market dominance is the basic work in the anti-monopoly law to determine whether the market dominance system is abused. In a sense, "market dominance" is an economic phenomenon and a market state of an enterprise. This state itself refers to the formation of a dominant market structure by an enterprise in a specific market. Under this market structure, operators with a dominant market position can freely raise or lower prices, and can freely implement competition restrictions on their operators without worrying that consumers or operators with whom they have trading relationships will abandon them. Instead, choose products from other competitive companies. According to the first paragraph of Article 17 of my country’s Anti-Monopoly Law, operators with a dominant market position have the ability to affect effective competition in the market. The requirements for an operator with a dominant market position are that the operator can act freely without considering the reactions of other competitors and consumers; consumers or users have a considerable degree of dependence on the operator; the independent actions of the operator can affect or hinder effective competition in the market. It needs to be made clear that a company with a dominant market position is not the same as a monopoly. According to the practice of various countries, there are generally three criteria for judging whether an enterprise has a dominant market position, namely market behavior, market effect and market structure.
The market conduct standard holds that if an operator does not consider the pricing behavior of other competitors or the relevant impacts of business decisions when specifying product prices or making business decisions, it can be judged that the operator has a dominant market position. Market behavior standards are actually based on market forces.
Determination of bundling transaction behavior Bundling transaction behavior, also known as tying behavior, refers to an operator with a dominant market position that violates trading practices, consumption habits, etc., or ignores the functions of commodities, and forcibly bundles or combines different commodities. Sale. In other words, bundled transactions refer to the act of requiring the buyer to purchase products or services that are independent of the subject matter of the contract when the seller signs a contract with the buyer; that is, when an operator sells one commodity, it is conditional on the buyer purchasing another commodity, which restricts users option. As for whether it constitutes additional unreasonable conditions under my country's Anti-Monopoly Law, it must be met: the counterparty is subject to conditions when conducting transactions; the attached conditions require the other party to accept them at the same time when conducting transactions; the attached conditions violate the transaction The true wishes of the other party; there is no reasonable reason for the attachment condition. Protecting consumer interests is one of the goals of my country’s antitrust laws. Clarifying the rules through judicial review guidelines or judicial interpretations, thereby unifying the adjudication path and maintaining the unity of legal application standards are the purpose of theoretical exploration and the practical need to continuously strengthen anti-monopoly according to law.