The Standing Of The Ultimate Consumers To Sue In Antitrust Damages Litigation

There are monoply in economy,when commodity component manufacturers or raw material producers have monopolistic conduct,it is the ultimate consumer who undertake the excessive pricing as the real victim since that the excessive pricing of commodity component or raw material will pass on to the final product.For instance,if the chip or the rolling bearing manufacturer have monopolistic conduct,the mobile phone or vehicle consumers will suffer from the excessive pricing.However,these cases mostly end with administrative fines from anti-monopoly law enforcement agencies,and there are no real victim consumers sue for dameges in the background that it seems to be able to sue for ultimate consumers in the name of themselvies according to Anti-Monopoly Law of the People’s Republic of China and related judicial interpretations.In the view of the contrast of legal texts and judicial practice,the question is whether ultimate consumers have the standing to sue against the manufacturers for dameges.Chapter One expound on the necessity the standing of ultimate consumers.Antitrust law’s enforcement includes public enforcement and private enforcement,that the illegal monopolistic conductor is charged with administrative fines does not mean that ultimate consumer is compensated by the manufacturers.The necessity comes from the goal of antiteust law which is protecting consumers.Chapter Two expound on the standing of the plaintiff in antitrust law suit.The plaintiff must submit complaint and satisfy the condition or standard of direct interest and causation.As for the subjects who are qualified for bringing a lawsuit,the foreign laws mostly use the word anyone while China Antitrust Law use the word others.Chapter Three expound on the standing of ultimate consumers in antitrust damages lawsuit.Antitrust damages lawsuit and the civil tort lawsuit is in the relationship of speciality and generality,and the speciality influences the ultimate consumer’s standing.Ultimate consumers situate in the end of the distribution chain,transact indirectly with the manufacturers,and suffer the loss from the excessive pricing.The theory of direct interest means that it is the plaintiff not others who brings the lawsuit to the court,which can not deduce the direct transaction or direct damages.If the manufacturer carry out the monopolistic conducts and cause damages to ultimate consumers shall bear the civil liability according to law.The damages should be real.Chapter Four expound on obstacles and solutions of ultimate consumer’s standing.Although there are obstacles in the cost of lawsuit and jurisdiction,they can be solved by designing the burden of proof and standard of proof and avoiding duplicate damages,which shows the feasibility of giving ultimate consumers the standing to sue.Finally,it is concluded that ultimate consumers have the standing to sue against manufacturers,and this conclusion should be test by judicial practice in the future.