Exemption And Adoption Of Antitrust Law In Tobacco Industry

After the Antitrust Law is issued, its application or exemption in specific industries has been the hot spot of both practitioners and academicians. ArticleⅦof Antitrust Law rules that for industries adopts monopoly in accordance with the law, the state shall protect legal operation activities of the operators。Then, is Tobacco Industry, as an industry which adopts monopoly in accordance with the law, included or exempted from the Antitrust Law?The purpose of antitrust law is to protect competition and maintain market fairness and efficiency, to exert legal sanctions on behaviors which restrict competition. In the development of antitrust law, the legislators found that the absolute prohibition of all behavior which restricts competitions can not be achieved,.in some specific areas, it is also against the economics law and benefits of the whole society.That is why exemption system is found in antitrust laws to correct the disadvantages of antitrust law itself. The purpose of exemption system is to achieve the whole community benefits. State tobacco monopoly in our country is also to achieve the whole community benefits through protecting consumers and national interests. In this point, it is consistent with the; purpose of exemption system. But as many problems has been exposed in China's tobacco industry, such as the alienation of the state monopoly to the regional monopoly, unfair competition, abuse of monopoly position, the low efficiency of resource allocation, excessive focus on economic interests instead of consumer protection and so on, all sides questions whether we should adhere to the tobacco industry's monopoly system. More and more people regard the issuing of antitrust law as an opportunity to accelerate the transformation of the tobacco industry and its institutional innovation.This thesis, based on the analysis of the value of both Antitrust Law and tobacco monopoly system, discusses the implication of ArticleⅦof Antitrust Law in depth.It concludes that ArticleⅦis a legislative choice during the transition period of our country. It implies that the state recognizes legal monopoly in specific industries and limits its illegal business. This is the case in tobacco industry as well. The issuing of Antitrust Law arouses deeper thoughts into the advantages and disadvantages as well as the existence and abolition of tobacco monopoly system. Based on value analysis comparative analysis, historical analysis and other research methods, this thesis try to find out the conflict and coordination between antitrust law and tobacco monopoly system in a Antitrust Law perspective, in order to rethink the reform path of tobacco monopoly.