The Cause, Mechanism and Systematical Construction of Hard Core Cartel:International Comparison and Its Reference to China

"Hard-core cartels " refers to a set of anti-competitive agreements, cooperative practices, and arrangements entered into by competitors, including price fixing, collusive bidding, output restriction, quota setting, and sharing or segmenting the market by dividing the consumers, suppliers, regions or business channels. With the commodity economy development and international trade prosperity, hard-core cartels prevail worldwide, which has not only gravely damaged relevant industries and customers, but severely impeded economic development and technical progress as well. The harm brought by hard-core cartels reveals deficiencies of traditional legal system. Although most countries have gradually realized the harm of hard-core cartels, to effectively regulate it, regulatory measures must be established or improved. Based on the research of hard-core cartel’s characteristics and deficiencies, this dissertation intends, through both economics and law analysis, to discuss the feasibility of establishing a system that combines domestic regulations and international cooperation to repress hard-core cartel to the maximum, and put forward to suggestions on Chinese legal system improvement in the context of China.The structure of this dissertation is as following:Firstly, the instable nature of hard-core cartels is the basis for being disintegrating and regulating. Hard-core cartels have inherent defects of profit-driven members, complicated structures and costly operation, which provides a system-designing breakthrough for repressing and regulating.Secondly, regulating hard-core cartels is grounded on their great harm. Theoretical and practical analysis has demonstrated that, hard-core cartels have exerted enonnous damages to international economy. Most countries’governments have realized this hann, which provides a theoretical and practical basis of international and domestic regulation and cooperation.Thirdly, the key element of regulating hard-core cartels lies in rules of burden of proof. To effectively regulate hard-core cartels, proving its existence and harm are essential but difficult. Therefor, forgiveness regime, information exchange system among countries and international organizations, and harmonization of international rules are key resolutions.Fourthly, the ultimate goal of this research is to establish and improve the hard-core cartels regulation system in China. China is still on its primary stage of socialistic market economy construction, where the market mechanism hasn’t matured enough, the public hasn’t formed strong anti-monopoly conscience and relative regulations are relative inadequate. Only a set of anti-monopoly mechanisms suitable for China’s situation can the harm of hard-core cartels be minimized and the healthy development of Chinese market economy be ensured.The value and innovations of this dissertation are embodied in three aspects:Firstly, from a historical research perspective, this dissertation systematically discusses the hard-core cartels’regulating history and reveals its development trend.Secondly, with a compound research approach, this dissertation applies legal and economic approaches into all major areas of hard-core cartels’regulating, discussing series of problems of regulating hard-core cartels from different perspectives.Thirdly, this dissertation focuses on specific issues relating to practice rather than widely theoretical discussion. Some interesting issues include:breakthrough of traditional analysis of hard-core cartels; discussion of existence and maintenance of hard-core cartels through microeconomics analysis approach on base of disassembling hard-core cartels components including subject matter, actus reus and mens rea; analysis of theoretical basis for regulating hard-core cartels from a perspective of efficiency measurement, and discussion of enormous damages caused by hard-core cartels in most countries especially developing countries in globalization; and systematical research of investigation system of hard-core cartels, which include:Systematical combing of indirect evidence obtaining approaches such as structural evidence judgment, behavioral evidence judgment, external shocks proof method and conjectural variation recognition method;Deep research of forgiveness regime. With the help of game theory and taking connotation and value of forgiveness regime as starting point, through investigation of forgiveness regimes in different countries, to clarify the forgiveness regime’s evolution and development, and on the base of this, to analyze the subjective matter and executer of forgiveness regime, behavioral and temporal conditions for obtaining forgiveness, causes of cancelling forgiveness and conditions for playing role of forgiveness regime;Comprehensive combing of current cooperation forms of regulating hard-core cartels in main countries and international organizations, and proposing constructive suggestions in aspects, which are currently weekly researched but highly realistic and significant, of clearly defining hard-core cartel, clarification of conditions on collaboration, establishment and soundness of forgiveness regime, construction of legal enforcement system with Chinese characteristics, and active involvement of international cooperation.