Research On Anti-Monopoly Regulation Of "Either-or Choice" Behavior Of E-Commerce Platforms

With the rapid development of Internet economy and the influence of data aggregation effect,the platform has the characteristics of multilateral market,scale economy,network effect,dynamic competition and so on,which has the natural"monopoly".Facing the vast market of digital economy,platform enterprises,after a certain scale of rapid development and competition,have launched fierce competition in order to occupy and consolidate the high ground of market competition.The behavior of "either-or choice " is a typical means of competition for platform enterprises.With the development of the case of JD vs.Tmall for abusing the dominant market position,the behavior of " either-or choice" of e-commerce platform has become the focus of discussion.In the current situation of strengthening the platform supervision,it is rational to use the Anti-Monopoly Law to regulate.Therefore,this paper starts from the analysis of the analysis path of the limited trading behavior of "either-or choice" on the e-commerce platform,and provides theoretical support for judicial practice through the solution of specific problems such as defining the relevant market,identifying the dominant position,analyzing the competition damage and justifiable defense.The first chapter analyzes the connotation and extension of the "either-or choice"behavior on the e-commerce platform.E-commerce platform refers to the information platform that provides services for the two parties to make a transaction,and it has the dual attributes of enterprise and market.E-commerce platform "either-or choice"behavior refers to the exclusive trading behavior of e-commerce platform operators to restrict merchants’ normal business activities on other platforms by punitive or incentive means.E-commerce platforms force merchants to choose "either-or choice",which not only damages the multi-attribution and actual interests of merchants,but also damages the market competitiveness of other competitive platforms,indirectly damages the legitimate rights and interests of consumers,but also leads to the destruction of fair competition order in the market,so it is necessary to regulate.As the platform supervision is becoming increasingly strict from loose supervision to prudent supervision and then to intensified supervision,it is suitable and necessary to apply the Anti-Monopoly Law to regulate the "either-or choice" behavior of e-commerce platforms with multiple damages.Due to the legislative limitations of vertical non-price monopoly agreements,this paper analyzes how to regulate this behavior through the regulation path of abusing the dominant market position in combination with the behavioral characteristics of "either-or choice" of e-commerce platforms.The second chapter focuses on solving the problems related to the market definition of e-commerce platforms,including whether the market must be defined,how to select the market and how to choose the market definition method when regulating the "either-or choice" behaviors of e-commerce platforms.First of all,it is still necessary for e-commerce platforms to define relevant markets.Secondly,it is clear that the e-commerce platform is a transactional platform,which can be taken as a whole to define a relevant market.When defining the market,we take substitution analysis as the core,qualitative analysis as the main part and quantitative analysis as the supplementary part.The third chapter analyzes the dominant position of e-commerce platform market.Firstly,it is clear that the importance of the market share presumption method should be reduced,and the reference index of market share should be adjusted.Factors such as the number of users and the proportion of users’ time using the platform should be taken as the measurement factors of market share.At the same time,it focuses on the analysis factors of new market entry barriers such as high sunk costs,data barriers,consumer preferences and standard barriers,as well as the dependence of merchants and consumers on the platform.At the same time,this paper points out that the concept of "either-or choice " in the Anti-Monopoly Guide on the Field of Platform Economy should be clarified.The fourth chapter analyzes the judgment criteria of the limited transaction behavior constituted by the "either-or choice " behavior of the e-commerce platform.E-commerce platform operator is the implementation of " either-or choice " behavior may be improving the quality of the product or service,protect specific resources,prevent hitchhiking,enhance consumer interests,protection of trade secrets and other justified reasons,it was founded on the premise of legal and means must,warrant can be supported through the case analysis to law enforcement agencies.Electric business platform " either-or choice " behavior constitutes limit in the broadest sense of the transaction behavior,but not all of the " either-or choice " behavior constitutes limit illegal transaction,compulsive " either-or choice" usually have events should constitute a violation of the law limited trading activity.The completely consensus"either-or choice" behavior usually does not have the illegality,but it needs to be distinguished from the "either-or choice" behavior with the agreement as the appearance of the actual existence of compulsion.