Research On The Legal Issues Of Platform "Either-or" Behavior

The arrival of the era of digital economy results in booming development of platform economy.Large or ultra large platforms emerge at such a moment.Operators of various platforms compete fiercely for market share,so multiple new competition forms appear such as price collusion,platform "either-or" and big data discriminatory pricing and become hot topics of economic circle,law circle and the society.The issue of Anti-Monopoly Guidelines on Platform Economy Sector of Anti-Monopoly Committee,The State Council(hereinafter referred to as Anti-Monopoly Guidelines)publicly declares that anti-monopoly law enforcement of platform economy sector has entered a new stage and is unstoppable.Article 15 of Anti-Monopoly Guidelines mentions platform "either-or" behavior.As one of widely concerned competition modes,platform "either-or" behavior has caused damage to market competition order to a certain extent,has been investigated frequently recently and has attracted extensive attention.However,current theoretical research results and normative documents are not sufficient for legal determination of platform "either-or" behavior and are not sufficient to provide a supportive anti-monopoly law analysis framework.How to effectively regulate platform "either-or" behavior in practice is still at the stage of exploration,and its difficult to fit existing laws and regulations.For this reason,this paper chooses representative cases related to platform "either-or" behavior as a starting point,extracts the dispute focuses,analyzes step by step and extends further with purpose of providing a reference to legal determination of platform "either-or" behavior and improvement of legal regulation framework.Chapter 1 chooses the representative cases,case of Qihoo versus Tencent and case of Alibaba,in evolution process of platform "either-or" behavior,introduces the cases in details,summarizes the case dispute focuses which are worth discussing,and puts forward three legal problems one by one: illegality determination of platform "either-or" behavior,platform "either-or" behavior constitutes an abuse of market dominant position or not,and legal application of platform "either-or" behavior.Chapter 2 analyzes the legal principles of problems involved in case dispute focuses.First,the illegality determination of platform "either-or" behavior is described from perspectives of performance mode of platform "either-or" behavior,illegality determination factors of platform "either-or" behavior,and legal basis for illegality determination in combination with relevant theoretical researches and existing legal provisions;second,based on the analysis framework of abuse of market dominant position,the case of Alibaba and the case of Qihoo versus Tencent are used as examples to analyze the key consideration factors for determinating platforms abuse of market dominant position;third,this chapter analyzes the legal application of platform "either-or" behavior,and analyzes and compares the regulation paths of legal norms of existing regulable platform "either-or" behavior.Chapter 3 is effectively linked to Chapter 2.Based on analysis of case dispute focuses,it gives feasible improvement suggestions,clarifies the performance mode and substantive features of platform "either-or" behavior,refines the components of abuse of market dominant position in combination with the characteristics of platform economy,defines existing legal norm applicable documents of regulating platform "either-or" behavior and regulation paths in China,promotes the refinement of rules through law enforcement practice,and establishes the framework and paths of three-law cooperative regulation centered on Anti-Monopoly Law with purpose of forming the legal regulation system of platform "either-or" behavior centered on Anti-Monopoly Law and promoting the healthy development of platform economy.