(Protecting fair competition and creating a good environment) The newly revised Anti-Monopoly Law will come into effect on August 1 this year!-Industry News-Shenzhen deep trust patent Agency Co., LTD

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(Protecting fair competition and creating a good environment) The newly revised Anti-Monopoly Law will come into effect on August 1 this year!

Release Time：

2022-06-30

Anti-monopoly law is closely related to laws related to intellectual property. This is reflected in both the current Anti-Monopoly Law and the newly revised Supplementary Provisions of the Anti-Monopoly Law. The Anti-Monopoly Law regulates monopolistic behavior and punishes monopolistic behavior. , can all be applied to monopolistic behaviors that exclude or restrict competition by abusing intellectual property rights.

The newly revised Anti-Monopoly Law will come into effect on August 1 this year——

Add a new legislative purpose of "encouraging innovation", introduce "safe harbor" rules for monopoly agreements, and increase penalties for violations... Recently, the 35th meeting of the Standing Committee of the 13th National People's Congress voted to adopt a decision on amending the Anti-Monopoly Law. Effective from August 1, 2022. This is the first revision of the Anti-Monopoly Law since its implementation in 2008. It further clarifies the relevant legal rules, helps maintain the order of fair competition, and provides operators with a fair, transparent and predictable good environment.

The newly revised Anti-Monopoly Law retains the core structure of eight special chapters, and the number of articles has been increased from 57 to 70. The content of the articles has also been modified, and there are many highlights in the specific modifications.

"Encourage innovation" purpose entered into law

Protect fair competition in the market while encouraging innovation. Article 1 of the newly revised Anti-Monopoly Law not only adds the content of "strengthening the basic position of the state's competition policy" to emphasize the protection of competition, but also incorporates "encouraging innovation" into the legislative purpose.

"Intellectual property protection and competition protection have the same goal, and both are to promote development. While protecting free competition, the legitimate exercise of intellectual property rights is not excluded. If the right holder abuses the intellectual property rights and excludes or restricts competition, the anti-monopoly law can still It is applicable, which reflects the spirit of the system that the law not only protects intellectual property rights and encourages innovation, but also regulates improper exercise of intellectual property rights." Ning Lizhi, director of the Institute of Intellectual Property and Competition Law of Wuhan University, said in an interview with this reporter.

"In the past period, there have been many antitrust administrative enforcement and judicial cases in the field of intellectual property rights, especially in the field of patents. Before Alibaba was fined for monopoly, Qualcomm, which had maintained the record for the highest fine in the country for six years, abused the market. The dominant position case and Xidian Jietong v. Sony and other cases all involve the abuse of standard essential patents to exclude and restrict market competition." Deng Zhisong, a senior lawyer at Beijing Dacheng Law Firm, said that at a time when the economic structure is facing deep adjustments, it is important to emphasize that antitrust laws It has the same legislative purpose of “encouraging innovation” as laws related to intellectual property rights, and its practical significance is beyond doubt.

Violation liability increased significantly

The reporter learned that the newly revised Anti-Monopoly Law has particularly obvious changes in legal liability. It not only significantly increases the upper limit of fines for some monopolistic behaviors, but also adds civil public interest litigation provisions of the Anti-Monopoly Law, clarifying that the people's procuratorates at the districted municipal level can file complaints with relevant parties. The People's Court initiated a civil public interest litigation.

"Legal liability is one of the important contents of any departmental law. Only by clarifying the legal responsibilities of relevant subjects can we effectively curb and deter violations of legal provisions by relevant subjects." Feng Xiaoqing, a professor at the School of Civil and Commercial Economics at China University of Political Science and Law, said in the speech In an interview with this reporter, he said that the newly revised Anti-Monopoly Law has greatly increased the penalties for violations of the Anti-Monopoly Law from many aspects and strengthened the liability for violations. For monopoly agreements, the penalty standards for cases where there was no sales in the previous year and the monopoly agreement was not implemented were increased. For example, if an operator who had no sales in the previous year signed and implemented a monopoly agreement, the maximum penalty could be 5 million yuan; for monopoly If the agreement is not implemented, the administrative penalty will also be greatly increased, from 500,000 yuan to 3 million yuan. Concentrations of business operators that violate the Anti-Monopoly Law will be punished in two cases based on whether they have the effect of eliminating or restricting competition. In addition, the newly revised Anti-Monopoly Law has increased the corresponding penalty standards for refusing anti-monopoly review and investigation. For example, refusing to provide materials or providing false materials, etc., can be punished according to 1% of the previous year's sales.

“In general, this revision of the Anti-Monopoly Law is of great significance in effectively curbing behaviors that harm the legitimate rights and interests of other operators and consumers as well as social and public interests, and in promoting fair and free competition and the healthy development of socialist and market economies. It’s of great significance.” Feng Xiaoqing said.

"Safe Harbor" rules gradually improved

The newly revised Anti-Monopoly Law this year clarifies that “operators who can prove that their market share in the relevant market is lower than the standards set by the Anti-Monopoly Law Enforcement Agency of the State Council and meet other conditions stipulated by the Anti-Monopoly Law Enforcement Agency of the State Council will not be prohibited from doing so.” Anti-Monopoly Law During the revision process of the Monopoly Law, the introduction and gradual improvement of “safe harbor” rules also attracted attention.

"With the steady development of my country's socialist market economy and the continuous accumulation of anti-monopoly law enforcement and judicial experience, practical and theoretical results have summarized many useful experiences in understanding and judging the illegality of monopoly agreements, and the 'safe harbor' rule is a This is a typical rule of thumb, and the construction of its legislative basis and standards is also rooted in this." Ning Lizhi introduced that before the revision of the Anti-Monopoly Law, my country's law enforcement agencies had explored "safe harbor" rules in relevant norms, based on the "Safe Harbor" issued in 2017. The Antitrust Guidelines on the Abuse of Intellectual Property Rights (Draft for Comments)", for example, not only set up "safe harbor" rules, but also directly used the expression of "safe harbor" rules.

"This revision of the law specifically sets up 'safe harbor' rules in the terms of vertical monopoly agreements, which has multiple values." Ning Lizhi said that the setting up of "safe harbor" rules can not only significantly save money through the liability exemption method of "grabbing the big and letting go of the small" Law enforcement resources will prevent law enforcement agencies from being trapped in some unnecessary, complicated, and expensive illegality analysis of vertical monopoly agreements. It will also help improve the transparency of my country's antitrust law enforcement and provide clear guidance for enterprises to operate in compliance with the law. In addition, the "safe harbor" rules can also reflect the country's encouragement and care for the development of small and medium-sized enterprises, reflect and practice concepts such as industrial transformation and upgrading, and optimization of the business environment. Of course, how the “safe harbor” rules will play their role in practice in the future still needs to be explored in the subsequent formulation of supporting regulations and law enforcement activities.

In order to implement the revised Anti-Monopoly Law, the "Regulations on Prohibiting the Abuse of Intellectual Property Rights to Exclude or Restrict Competition (Draft for Comments)" drafted by the State Administration for Market Regulation is currently soliciting public opinions, which will help further protect the market. Fair competition and safeguarding consumer interests and social public interests.

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