Antitrust Regulation Of Algorithmic Collusion In The Era Of Big Data

The advent of the big data era has not only fundamentally changed the traditional business operations and competition methods,but also in the field of digital economy,big data has become one of the most critical production factors.The collection,analysis and use of data will greatly generate market competition.The impact of this law has aroused great concern from the anti-monopoly regulatory agencies in various jurisdictions.The combination of algorithms and big data has spawned all kinds of digital monopoly behaviors,which undoubtedly caused a certain impact on the theoretical basis and enforcement practices of traditional anti-monopoly laws.This article will select algorithmic collusion behavior in digital monopoly behavior,and analyze its challenges to existing theoretical systems,and try to solve the regulatory dilemma of algorithmic collusion in my country's "Anti-Monopoly Law" in the era of big data.In addition to the introduction and abstract,the main body of this article will be divided into four parts,the main contents are as follows:The first part will focus on algorithms and their basic impact on competition.First of all,this part will analyze the positive significance brought by the wide application of big data and algorithms,that is,improving the market competitiveness of operators.Second,analyze the concept and basic characteristics of algorithmic collusion.Although the widespread application of algorithms has brought positive significance,it has also produced "by-products",namely,algorithmic collusion and algorithmic discriminatory pricing.Finally,the application of the analysis algorithm makes the market structure no longer have a strong positive correlation with the collusion,that is,the influence on the traditional anti-monopoly law theory.The second part is a typed analysis of algorithmic collusion.In this part,first analyze the four algorithms that promote collusion;secondly,analyze the four algorithms that may cause collusion by the above four algorithms,and select the real cases of collusion of the first two algorithms for analysis;Finally,it discusses the responsibility of the algorithmic collusion behavior.The third part analyzes the difficulties of algorithmic collusion in issuing monopoly regulations.First of all,the concealment of algorithmic collusion is its primary regulatory difficulty.The application of the algorithm reduces the reliance of collusion on the market structure,which will lead to collusion behaviors that may occur in any structure of the market.The expansion of the market that regulators need to focus on supervision will reduce the probability of discovering illegal behaviors.And algorithmic collusion,especially the self-characteristics of implied algorithmic collusion,is not easy to be discovered by regulators.Secondly,the legislative model of the monopoly agreement dichotomy is difficult to regulate axis-and-width algorithm collusion.The algorithm application model represented by the online car-hailing platform is very likely to cause the occurrence of hub-and-spoke algorithm collusion,and the legislative model of the dichotomy of monopoly agreements in our country will cause the difficulty of effective regulation in law enforcement by regulatory agencies.Finally,the relevant clauses of the monopoly agreement are difficult to regulate implicit algorithmic collusion.Evidence of liaison of intent plays a key role in the determination of monopoly agreements in my country,but there is no such evidence for implied algorithmic collusion since the beginning,which leads to the prohibition of monopoly agreement clauses in effectively regulating this behavior.The fourth part mainly studies the basic regulatory schemes of anti-monopoly regulatory algorithm collusion in the era of big data.First,strengthen the prior regulation of algorithmic collusion.Specifically from three perspectives.First,reduce the probability of algorithm collusion from the source by reasonably restricting the range of data obtained;second,strengthen compliance at the algorithm development level,such as setting up a code/algorithm blacklist system,and explicitly prohibiting algorithms that are prone to collusion/The use of codes;third,strengthen the scientific and technological supervision capacity building of anti-monopoly law enforcement agencies.Second,increase the general terms of the antitrust agreement to regulate hub-and-spoke algorithm collusion.Aiming at the special type of monopoly agreement,which is"like vertical but not vertical,but horizontal but not horizontal",the hub and spoke agreement,through analysis and comparison,adding general terms of the monopoly agreement is the best way to solve this problem.Finally,the application of the abuse of the common market dominance system implied algorithmic collusion.The implied algorithmic collusion itself is a kind of cooperative behavior(implied collusion).It is difficult to determine the constituent elements of the cooperative behavior in our country;which is "whether there has been communication of intentions or information exchanges between the operators".In contrast,the common market There is no such requirement for the determination of dominant position,and to a certain extent,implied collusion has a strong similarity with abuse of market dominance.Therefore,it can be considered to apply the system to regulate implied algorithmic collusion.