Research On Antitrust Regulation Of Algorithmic Personalized Pricing On Internet Platforms

The national "14th Five-Year Plan" for the developing of digital economy emphasizes the construction of digital China with data elements.Data and algorithm technology are the core factors of production in the digital economy and play a crucial role in China’s economic growth.Internet technology platforms rely on algorithms and data technology for personalized pricing,which is a technical behavior with rationality and neutrality,but the platforms are profit-making organizations aiming at profit maximization,and under the support of their own powerful market forces,the platform algorithm technology is abused,consumer interests are seized,the competition order is destroyed,and the technical tools become the " Weapons".In contrast to the traditional market pricing model,the platform introduced algorithms and data analysis technology in the pricing mechanism in order to obtain data on consumers’ consumption behavior and willingness to buy,so as to achieve accurate recommendation and personalized pricing of goods.The "invisible hand" is used to operate the prices in the platform and to complete the "thousand prices" for consumers.Such behavior not only destroys the regular market pricing mechanism and harms the interests of consumers,but also disrupts the order of the digital economy market transactions and threatens the security of transactions.On the basis of the introduction,this thesis focuses on the theoretical basis of algorithmic personalized pricing on Internet platforms,and explains the meaning and characteristics of Internet platforms as well the concept of algorithmic personalized pricing and its essence.The thesis analyses the illegality and harm of algorithmic personalized pricing on Internet platforms in terms of the logic of the application of antitrust law,and shows the necessity and justification of antitrust law in regulating this issue.Further analysis of the dilemma in the antitrust regulation of algorithmic personalized pricing on Internet platforms raises the argument of the antitrust value concept,both in terms of the inappropriateness of the antitrust illegality determination criteria to the platform economy and the inadequacy of the mechanism between the internal and external platforms.Particularly,algorithmic personalized pricing on the Internet platform is an abuse of market dominance by the platform operator with a dominant market position,which needs to be regulated by antitrust law.Due to the characteristics of bilateral market and dynamic competition of Internet platform,the relevant market definition and market share determination cannot follow the traditional determination standard process,and the regulatory enforcement also fails to reflect the technical characteristics of data and algorithms.In view of the problems,we propose to improve the antitrust regulation.First of all,it is necessary to adhere to the concept of inclusive and prudent antitrust regulation,to intervene prudently in the regulation,to balance the relationship between platform operators and users’ interest and the fair and orderly market,and to maintain the advantages of the economic development of the platform as well as to maintain the concept of antitrust regulation.By combining the characteristics of the bilateral market of the Internet platform and the attributes of dynamic competition,the relevant market definition methods and the consideration factors for determining market dominance are improved,and the value of data elements and non-structural factors such as the scale of users and conversion costs are increased in the determination of market share.The external regulatory mechanisms and the internal restraint mechanisms of platforms are equally important.On the one hand,the internal compliance mechanism of Internet platforms should be established to enhance the awareness of responsibility for platform regulation and internal technical control.On the other hand,the level of anti-monopoly regulation should be adapted to the development mode of Internet platforms,strengthen the algorithmic review,regulate the collection and interests of data and improve the transparency requirements of personalized pricing,and finally establish a standardized and orderly Internet platform competition environment.