Empirical Research On Burden Of Proof Of Abuse Of Market Dominance Litigation

In recent years,the number of civil litigation cases of abuse of dominant market position has gradually increased,difficult in providing evidence and low winning rate for plaintiff still exist,the key problem is that the plaintiff bears a heavy burden of proof and the distribution of burden of proof is unreasonable.In order to promote the role of civil litigation in the implementation of competition policy,it is necessary to further rationally allocate the burden of proof of both parties in the abuse of dominant market position lawsuit.Based on the perspective of law and economics,this thesis first analyzes the components of cost of proof and the factors that affect the allocation of burden of proof through cost minimization economic theory.Then,based on 113 civil litigation cases of abuse of market dominance from 2007 to 2021,it explored the difficulty of plaintiff’s proof in practice and the factors that affect the outcome of cases.Through the empirical analysis of the number of evidence,the proportion of evidence adopted by the court and the case result,the object of evidence proof and the case result,it is found that the three factors of the amount of evidence plaintiff provided,the proportion of plaintiff’s evidence adopted by the court and whether the plaintiff has proved defendant’s abuse of market dominance position are strongly correlated with the outcome of the case,the plaintiff bears the main burden of proof.This is contrary to the conclusion of economic analysis that the defendant should bear a certain burden of proof,the main burden of proof should be on the defendant for abuse of market dominance position.On the basis of analysis,this thesis further puts forward some legal suggestions: Firstly,at the legislative level,in terms of the quantity of evidence,improve our evidence discovery system to enhance the probative force of evidence from both parties;in terms of key evidence,promulgate relevant laws and regulations to reduce the plaintiff’s burden in proving abuse of dominant market position;Secondly,at the judicial level,improve the accuracy of judicial decisions,strengthen the application of economic analysis to make more favorable judgments for market development.