Research On Market Definition In Horizontal Merger Of The Civil Aviation Industry

Compared with other industries,the civil aviation industry has its unique complex network and high entry barriers.In order to effectively cope with the fierce competition at home and abroad,airlines mostly choose to expand the scale of enterprises and improve their operating efficiency through mergers and acquisitions.Mergers and acquisitions can be broken down into horizontal and vertical mergers.The horizontal mergers studied in this article are mainly mergers and acquisitions between existing or potential competitors.Although horizontal mergers and acquisitions may help the companies expanding their scale and improving their market layout,they may also generate monopolies and thus act against the competition.Therefore,in order to better guide the practice of enterprises,it is necessary to study the horizontal mergers in the civil aviation industry.The civil aviation industry experienced two large merger cases in 2010:China Eastern Airlines Co.,Ltd.'s acquisition of Shanghai Airlines Co.,Ltd.and Air China's acquisition of Shenzhen Airlines Co.,Ltd.After the merger,China Eastern Airlines Co.,Ltd.(hereinafter referred to as China Eastern Airlines)and China International Airlines Co.,Ltd.(hereinafter referred to as Air China)have significantly increased their market competitiveness and market concentration.The two horizontal mergers and acquisitions have had a profound impact on our civil aviation market and the international civil aviation market.As far as the domestic market is concerned,China Eastern Airlines and Air China have become two of the three major domestic aviation giants.Local and small civil aviation companies have been marginalized,and their market share and concentration have declined significantly.As for the international market,China's civil aviation market became the second largest civil aviation market of the world.The growth of the two civil aviation giants has also profoundly affected the international civil aviation market.In response to the impact of the two mergers and acquisitions,a number of studies have been conducted in the academic community,related to China Eastern Airlines and Shanghai Airlines Co.,Ltd.(hereinafter referred to as Shanghai Airlines),Air China and Shenzhen Airlines Co.,Ltd.(hereinafter referred to as Shenzhen Airlines).Those researches were focusing on the afterwards performance,the analysis of corporate profitability,the impact of mergers and acquisitions on the macro aviation industry market.However,it lacked analysis of the review process of mergers and acquisitions.From the perspective of practice,since the promulgation of the "Antitrust Law" in China,the Ministry of Commerce has granted unconditional approval to three civil aviation industry applications for mergers and acquisitions,but the standard it used in review and the methods used when defining relevant market has not been analyzed.This article will combine the methodology of economics and economics,draw on the relevant legislative experience of the EU and the United States,and define the relevant market with merger cases of mergers and acquisitions.In the context of China's Anti-Monopoly Law,I will try to give suggestions of setting definitions to the relevant market.The civil aviation market in the EU and the US has experienced several major mergers over the past 20 years.This article uses a comparative analysis method to study the relevant market definition methods and legal regulations in various jurisdictions.By analyzing the historical evolution and case judgments of relevant laws in the European Union and the United States,it analyzes how EU and American antitrust lawmakers responded to and responded to the antitrust market.The changes and impact on the law.The panel data from 1993 to 2013 was selected to extract the regression model applied to the relevant market definition.Combine the regression model with the critical loss method to confirm the relevant market definition applied by DOJ the case of US Airlines&American Airlines.Finally,this article applies the judgment methods of the EU and the United States to the relevant market in China's 2010 Eastern Airlines/Shanghai Airlines merger and acquisition case,and concludes through the analysis of "city pairs" that the merger involves a total of 80 overlapping routes,with nearly 20 routes based on Existing evidence can prove to adversely affect competition and reduce consumer welfare.Through comparative analysis,this article mainly comes to the following conclusions:First,the main purpose of the European Commission in legislation is to protect the legitimate rights of consumers.The main principle of US antitrust law is to promote and protect competition,not to protect competitors.Second,both the European Commission and the United States use "ciry pair" approach in defining aviation markets.Among those,the European Union considers multiple and complicated factors in the definition of relevant markets.In addition to using the "city pair" as the standard in the cases defined in the relevant market,the United States also include landing slots.The take-off and landing slots of companies at the airport also serve as the first-level relevant market.Lastly,in January 2020,the State Council's Market Supervision Administration issued a public comment on the "Revision of the "Antitrust Law"(Draft for Public Comment).In the context of the revision of the Antitrust Law,this article suggests that we shall refer to the practices of the United States and the European Union.We shall make comprehensive protection of a good competition order and the protection of consumers' legitimate rights and interests as our legislative purposes and use the "city pair" method to define relevant markets.