| Nowadays, increased globalization of economy and the speed of informationdissemination made joint ventures, strategic alliances and other forms of collaborationmore essential. However, joint ventures are always the most confusing and uncertainpart of the antitrust law. For one thing, there is no precise definition of the term of"joint venture" as almost every form of collaboration among independent firms can becalled a joint venture. For another, a joint venture can be pro-competitive oranticompetitive. In contrast to horizontal restrains, competitors who set up the jointventure will integrate resources into the entity which can raise efficiency. Jointventures are also different from mergers because the firms will remain competitors inall other aspects of their business. Thus joint ventures create a blend of corporationand competition in ways not encountered in the ordinary conditions. This article willtake European competition law and American antitrust law as examples to discussantitrust analysis of joint ventures. The competition law of European analyzes jointventures under the framework of control of concentrations and uses article 81 to treatrestrains of competition that may be raised by joint ventures. The antitrust laws ofUnited States treat joint ventures as collaborations among competitors more thanconcentrations. The application of law should be decided by the courts concerning thespecific circumstances. Though the patterns of analysis are different, they both treatjoint ventures loosely and encourage their business players to chose joint ventures toimprove their competitive strength.After the entry into WTO and the open of our markets, our local enterprises,especially the middle-sized ones, will face with fiercely competition from themultinational corporations. Establishing Joint ventures is a reliable way to increasethe bargaining power of the local enterprises. But the anticompetitive dangers broughtby the joint ventures can not be overlooked. Therefore it is necessary for our countryto set down some rules to regulate the establishment of joint ventures under antitrustlaw. According to the judicial practices and experience of Europe and United States,concerning the market conditions in china, the article proposes some ideas andsuggestions on how to regulate joint ventures in China and establish our ownjurisprudence of control of joint ventures. |
