On The Regulation Of Tying Arrangement In New Economy Times

As a method of selling, the tying arrangement is an important content of managerial autonomy of an enterprise and is supposed to be regulated by private law system. But when it is used by an enterprise that holds market ascendancy, it can bring side-effects such as excluding competitors in the market, heightening entry obstacle and depriving the rights of free choice of consumers. In other words, it can do harm to the order of market competition. So it is regulated by the antitrust law in most countries in the world.However, there are some reasonable causes for the existence of a tying arrangement. For example, it can bring better control of the quality of commodities, safeguard reputations of sellers, improve the welfare of consumers and promote competitions in the market consequently. So it is not being entirely forbidden by the antitrust law. And because the commodities in the market become more technical and complex in new economy times, more and more tying arrangements are being used to decrease the unnecessary cost of choosing commodities blindly by consumers and to make commodities operate normally, so it seems quite necessary to evaluate the positive and negative effects of tying arrangements.China is now in the period of reform of economic system and the conflicts among different interests in the market competition become very fierce. Public facility enterprises and the other enterprises which legally monopolized the special market endeavour to maintain their vested interests, and some multinational companies that hold technical advantages often misuse their advantages by making use of the insufficiency of the Chinese competition law system. Therefore, the research and analysis of various tying arrangements are of important academic and practical value to improve the competition law system, to design fair and orderly competition environment and to safeguard the interests of national enterprises.In the preface of this article, by analyzing the monopoly case of Sony Lithium Battery, which is considered to be the first case regarding the misuse of intellectual property right by multinational companies in China, the author put forwards the importance and imperious necessity of improving the antitrust regulation of tying arrangements.In Chapter 1, the author gives a definition of tying arrangement after comparing different legislative expressions in different countries, makes an introduction of its different modes and then compares it with some relevant activities in order to clear up some misunderstandings.In Chapter 2, the author analyzes some regulation theories of tying arrangements developed in industrial economy times by means of economic and jurisprudential theories. Afterwards, the author analyzes the regulations of tying arrangement in the United States, European Union, Japan and some other countries and regions.As a result of the birth and rapid development of intellectual economy, the traditional antitrust system can not keep up with new situations and circumstances. In Chapter 3, after discussing the differences between traditional industrial economy and the newly developed intellectual economy, we analyze some new characters of tying arrangement in intellectual economy times and the difficulty of regulation it brings forth. Then we do some explanations of the new regulation theories of tying arrangement in the United States and the European Union.In Chapter 4, we do some introductions of the regulation of tying arrangement under the Anti Unfair Competition Law of the People's Republic of China and some relevant current laws and administrative regulations. We find some defects and limitations in these laws and regulations, such as lacking of general provisions, lacking of constitutive requirements of tying arrangement, defect of legal responsibilities and lacking of a specialized executive institution. These defects and limitations make it quite difficult to take timely and effective regulations on tying arrangements. Finally, we give some suggestions and advice of designing the legislation and regulation system of tying arrangement in Chapter 5.