Research On Behavioral Diagnostic Index System Of Horizontal Monopoly Agreement

Horizontal monopoly agreement,also known as collusion,alliance,conspiracy,cartel etc,refers to written or oral agreements,decisions or other concerted actions that are made by two or more market players that have competing relationships with each other to limit or eliminate competition in terms of product quantity,price,market,etc.Although different countries and regions have different titles,the horizontal monopoly agreement is recognized as the most serious damage caused by all types of anti-competitive behavior.Therefore,various countries in the world have always regarded the horizontal monopoly agreement as one of the core contents of their respective antitrust laws.However,because companies know that it is illegal to reach a horizontal monopoly agreement,all this is done in secret.This has caused the law enforcement agencies to not be able to detect the existence of horizontal monopoly agreements in time,leading to the antitrust enforcement in the process of serious delays.At the same time,law enforcement agencies are highly passive in reviewing horizontal monopoly agreements,instead of actively discovering the existence of a horizontal monopoly agreement,the motivation for the review of cases is almost entirely from reports of dismissed employees,consumers,competitors,or participating companies,in particular,excessive reliance on reports from cartel members(leniency policy),this leads to the low probability that the horizontal monopoly agreement will be discovered.Therefore,how to find out the existence of a horizontal monopoly agreement in time is a difficult problem to be solved urgently by the anti-monopoly law enforcement agencies in various countries.In order to solve the problem of hysteresis and passivity,the academic community proposed a screening method.Screening is a type of statistical test that is used to determine if there is a competition problem in a market and if there are companies involved.Screening methods can be further divided into structural methods and behavioral methods.Because the market that is screened out using structural methods is those markets that are likely to reach a horizontal monopoly agreement,not those that have a horizontal monopoly agreement.Therefore,this article will select the behavioral method as the research object.This paper selects 75 cases involving horizontal monopoly agreements decided by the European Commission from 2001 to May 2016 as samples.First,this paper analyzed the influence of eight types of corporate behavior on the stability of horizontal monopoly agreements.Through analysis found: Firms' fixed market share and gradual and continuous price increase will reduce the stability of horizontal monopoly agreements;The division of geographic markets,the announcement of new prices in a sequential manner,the purchase of products among enterprises,sales quotas,restrictions on production,and distribution of customers can improve the stability of horizontal monopoly agreements.In particular,sales quotas have the greatest effect on improving the stability of horizontal monopoly agreements,followed by limiting output,followed by strong and weak ones in order to divide geographical markets,buy products from each other,distribute customers,and announce new prices in order.Second,summarizes the markers(corporate behavior and market performance)of the horizontal monopoly agreement.Through reading and collating the selected sample cases,introduces the 11 markers of horizontal monopoly agreements in terms of price,market,quantity,and other aspects.Finally,according to the principles of the AHP,the behavioral diagnostic index system for horizontal monopoly agreements is constructed,and the importance of each marker in the index system was ranked by using the Cox proportional hazards model weighted AHP and the least squares(OLS)weighted AHP;Finaly,the comprehensive score of each marker is obtained by Copeland method,and the importance of each marker is finally ranked.Through analysis found: Only one or a few companies in a given region sale product have the highest ranking,next is the same duration of the supply contract,and it is difficult for the customer to convert the product supplier.However,it is difficult for customers to obtain all the demand from a single supplier,and the product prices continuously increases gradually with the lowest score.Hope that as a preliminary diagnostic tool for judging whether a horizontal monopoly agreement exists,can help law enforcement agencies narrow the scope of investigations,and discover the existence of horizontal monopoly agreements in time,solving the problem of delay in the enforcement process,minimizes the losses caused by the horizontal monopoly agreement.