Antitrust Regulation Of Algorithmic Price Discrimination

The change and development of data technology promotes the boom of the digital economy,eating into the traditional capital of the economy.Algorithm price discrimination as data technology and high fusion of market economic activity,is the early operator by providing low or free goods and services for user data,through a certain algorithm,the depth of mining,analyze the ability to pay,consumption preference,behavior habits,trading relative portrait classification,in the case of the same trading conditions,without good reasons for the implementation of different pricing behavior.As mentioned in the 14 th Five-Year Digital Economy Development Plan,digital China should be built with data as a key element.Data and algorithm technology have undoubtedly become the new core factor of production,changing the original business model and competitive mode,and the competitive effect of price discrimination has become more complicated because of the addition of data and algorithms.Although algorithm price discrimination data abuse and abuse of dominant market behavior,but from the perspective of essence and purpose,algorithm price discrimination is still operators in order to maximize profit pricing,so as to increase market control,so for dominant operators without justifiable reasons to implement algorithm price discrimination,constitute the abuse of dominant market behavior,should be regulated by the anti-monopoly law.In addition to the introduction and conclusion,the main text includes five parts.The first part is the definition of algorithmic price discrimination.To algorithm price discrimination,price discrimination,algorithm discrimination three similar concepts,from the two aspects of implementation path and characteristics of algorithm price discrimination further clear,to protect the rights and interests of consumers and protect the overall social welfare and maintain market fair competition order,regulation algorithm price discrimination is necessary,through the analysis of price discrimination violations,clear market dominant operators algorithm price discrimination should be regulated by the antitrust law.The second part is the specific manifestations and causes of the algorithm price discrimination.This paper summarizes the specific forms of algorithmic price discrimination in today’s market economic activities,which are familiar with the "big data killing",the "consumption grading" forms that coincide with behavior discrimination and search discrimination,and the "targeted coupons" forms common in online shopping.Then,in addition to the discrimination of algorithm technology itself,operators’ use of information asymmetry to pursue the natural nature of profit,the state of inclusive supervision of new things,and the analysis of the cost of anti-discrimination from the perspective of consumers,so that the occurrence of algorithm price discrimination is even repeatedly banned.The third part is the regulation status of algorithm price discrimination.This paper sorts out the laws and regulations regulating algorithm and price discrimination at home and abroad,summarizes and analyzes the American experience based on the existing anti-monopoly regulatory framework and civil rights relief,the EU model similar to the legal regulation of personal information protection,and the Japanese model of anti-monopoly law when the data behavior reaches the point of monopoly.To sum up,the price discrimination of the regulation algorithm should be based on the national conditions and adhere to the case analysis,but when the behavior reaches the degree of monopoly,the anti-monopoly law must be applied.The fourth part is divided into the antitrust regulation dilemma of algorithmic price discrimination.On the basis of the cognition that the dominant operators’ algorithm price discrimination should continue to be regulated by the anti-monopoly law.The dilemma of anti-monopoly regulation of algorithm price discrimination is analyzed from four aspects:the regulation concept is controversial,the illegal identification standards still need to be improved,the law enforcement level and supervision ability need to be improved,and the judicial litigation system and accountability mechanism need to be improved.The fifth part is to improve the anti-monopoly regulation of algorithm price discrimination.To adhere to the modest anti-monopoly law regulation concept,further clarify the algorithm price discrimination standard,innovation market dominance and related market definition method,improve antitrust regulation ability,nationwide competition policy and big data center,cultivate high knowledge reserve antitrust law enforcement team,and the burden of proof inversion perfect antitrust litigation system,give private litigation relief,and improve the accountability mechanism,for algorithm users and algorithm owners respectively,from the root solve algorithm price discrimination.