Research On The Misunderstanding And Countermeasures Of The Illegality Determination Of Resale Price Maintenance

The Anti Monopoly Law of China was implemented in 2008,with only Article14 and Article 15 regulating resale price maintenance agreements,which are framework based regulations.The newly revised "Anti Monopoly Law" in 2022 has made improvements to vertical monopoly agreements,but the provisions on resale price maintenance agreements are still not clear enough.Due to the high generality of the legal provisions of the Anti Monopoly Law and the lack of corresponding specific implementation rules,coupled with many problems in the application of the law by courts and anti monopoly law enforcement agencies,the standards for determining the illegality of resale price maintenance agreements in China are unclear.This has led to many misunderstandings in China’s determination of the illegality of resale price maintenance agreements,such as equating intervention in autonomous pricing behavior with monopolistic behavior,incorrect application of the principle of illegality determination,and using market dominance as the determining element of resale price maintenance agreements.In practice,it is also common for resale price maintenance agreements to have different judgments in the same case,which in the long run is not conducive to the realization of social fairness and justice.Therefore,starting from theory and practice,this article attempts to clarify the reasons for the misunderstanding of the illegality of the resale price maintenance agreement mentioned above and propose corresponding solutions.By analyzing the relevant provisions of China’s Anti Monopoly Law and the supporting regulations issued in recent years,as well as the problems in anti monopoly law enforcement and judicial practice,we can conclude that there are various possible reasons for the erroneous determination of the illegality of resale price maintenance agreements,such as the system conflict problem in the implementation of China’s anti monopoly law,the path dependence problem of anti monopoly administrative law enforcement,and the problems existing in the anti monopoly implementation agencies themselves.In response to the misconceptions and reasons behind the illegality determination of resale price maintenance agreements mentioned above,this article proposes countermeasures to address these misconceptions,including suggestions for institutional selection in the implementation of China’s antitrust law,explicit provisions on the principle of "defensible presumption of violation",narrowing the scope of application of the "safe harbor" rule,and improving the implementation mechanism of antitrust law.Attempt to explore a scientific path for determining the illegality of resale price maintenance agreements to meet the needs of China’s market economy development.