On The Vertical Restriction Of Competition In The Automotive Aftermarket Anti-monopoly Law Regulation

The vertical restrictive competitive behaviors in our country’s automobile aftersale market mainly include the following behaviors:maintaining resale price,restricting the downstream dealers’ foreign trade of spare parts,unreasonable restrictions on maintenance service and circulation of spare parts,restricting the acquisition of maintenance technology information,and forcing 4s dealers to accept unreasonable number and variety of spare parts.Auto suppliers make super-competitive profits through these activities.Both in the past and in the present,vertical restraint of competition in the after-sales market is rampant.Articles 18 and 20 of the new anti-monopoly law,as amended in 2022,have added safe havens and improved the exemption provisions and the backstop provisions for vertical non-price restrictions on competition,it has a certain beneficial effect on regulating the longitudinal restrictive competition behavior of automobile after-sale market.But an analysis of existing law enforcement and judicial cases shows that,there are many problems in the relevant laws and regulations of our country,such as unclear framework for determining the illegality of vertical restriction of competition,unsafe "Safe harbor",unclear relationship between vertical restriction of competition and abuse of market dominant position,imperfect exemption system,hindering the disclosure of maintenance technology information,etc.,this has caused the inadequacy of anti-monopoly regulation in practice.Compared with other countries,the rich experience of regulating the vertical restriction of competition in automobile after-sale market in Europe and provides a model for our country.Perhaps on the basis of drawing lessons from the European and n regulation experience,it would be better to discuss how to perfect our country’s legal regulation proposal.At the present stage,based on the current situation of the automotive aftermarket,the anti-monopoly regulation of vertical restriction of competition should be constructed by establishing the principle of reasonable analysis and constructing a framework for analyzing the illegality of vertical restriction of competition.The system of exemptions is reconstructed from the perspective of unifying the rules of exemptions and improving the standards of application of the rules of exemptions;the relationship between the system of regulation of vertical restriction of competition and the system of regulation of abuse of dominant position is clarified from the perspective of distinguishing and clarifying the application of the system of regulation of vertical restriction of competition and the system of regulation of abuse of dominant position;the relationship between the disclosure of maintenance technology information and the protection of intellectual property is rationalized from the perspective of coordinating the disclosure of maintenance technology information and the protection of intellectual property and promoting the disclosure of maintenance technology information.The relationship between maintenance technology information disclosure and intellectual property protection is rationalized in terms of coordinating maintenance technology information disclosure with intellectual property protection and promoting maintenance technology information disclosure.