The First Shot Of Internet Antitrust: Alibaba Tencent Was Punished For Violating The Anti-Monopoly Law And Is Reviewing The Merger Of Tiger Tooth And Betta

According to the official website of the State Administration of market supervision on December 14, the State Administration of market supervision has made administrative punishment decisions on three cases of illegal concentration of business operators, including Alibaba's investment in purchasing Yintai commercial shares, Yuewen group's acquisition of shares in Xinli media, and Fengchao's purchase of shares in China Post zhidu, respectively.

In addition, this year's much concerned about the tiger tooth Betta merger is also under antitrust review.

When the General Administration of the people's Republic of China on anti-monopoly, the main purpose of the anti-monopoly law is to protect all kinds of enterprises, including small and medium-sized enterprises and large-scale enterprises, to be fair to all kinds of enterprises Environment. Although the competition in the field of platform economy presents some new characteristics, the Internet industry is not outside the anti-monopoly law. All enterprises should strictly abide by the anti-monopoly laws and regulations and maintain fair market competition. Only in this way can we ensure the healthy development of the whole industry. "

Illegal implementation of concentration without declaration according to law

The investigation shows that the three cases all constitute the concentration of business operators who have not declared illegal implementation according to law, but have no effect of eliminating and restricting competition. Alibaba investment, Yuewen and Fengchao network have the obligation to declare, but they have not declared according to law. Therefore, the market supervision administration has decided to impose an administrative penalty of RMB 500000 on Alibaba investment, Yuewen and Fengchao respectively.

From the investigation of the case, the illegal facts are relatively clear. After the acquisition, Alibaba investment, Yuewen and Fengchao network respectively obtained control rights, which belong to the concentration of business operators stipulated in Article 20 of the anti monopoly law. The turnover of the operators participating in the concentration obviously meets the declaration standard of the concentration declaration. However, before the implementation of concentration, the declaration of concentration was not carried out according to law.

The three cases of illegal concentration of business operators who failed to declare according to law all involved the situation of agreement control structure, namely the so-called vie structure. This is the first time that the General Administration of market supervision has imposed administrative punishment on enterprises involving vie structure for illegal concentration.

The draft of anti monopoly guidelines on platform economy issued on November 10 clearly points out that "concentration involving vie structure belongs to the scope of anti-monopoly review of concentration of undertakings" This is the first time that the official documents definitely accept the anti-monopoly declaration and review of vie structure enterprises, and a large number of Internet head enterprises are just the main types of enterprises adopting vie structure.

At the "double 11" administrative guidance meeting on regulating online economic order, the General Administration of market supervision also made it clear that the concentration of business operators involving vie structure is also applicable to the anti-monopoly law, which should be declared and subject to anti-monopoly examination according to law.

In addition, the General Administration of market supervision also said that it was reviewing cases involving vie structure, such as the merger of tiger teeth and Betta Fish. In October this year, Tencent successfully promoted the merger of Huya and douyu. The two live game platforms together occupied the largest live game market in China. Relying on Tencent's game copyright resources, the phenomenon of "operator concentration" in the live broadcasting industry is very obvious.

It is reported that in the first half of this year, a case involving the declaration of concentration of business operators involving the vie structure, the newly established joint venture between mingchazhegang and Huansheng information, has passed the examination of the General Administration of market supervision and has been approved unconditionally.

"The Internet is not outside the antitrust law"

It is worth noting that the General Administration of market supervision made a fine, but did not require the three acquisition cases to return to the state before the implementation of concentration of business operators.

It not only makes a comprehensive survey of the company's market situation, but also influences the market situation of the company's related companies and the related market situation. The investigation results of the three cases by the General Administration of market supervision show that there is no effect of eliminating or restricting competition in these three cases. Therefore, the operators are not required to return to the state before concentration.

According to Article 48 of the anti monopoly law, "if a business operator violates the provisions of this law to implement concentration, the antimonopoly law enforcement agency of the State Council shall order it to stop the concentration, dispose of its shares or assets within a time limit, transfer its business within a time limit and take other necessary measures to restore it to the state before concentration, and may impose a fine of less than 500000 yuan."

The main person in charge of the antimonopoly Bureau of the State Administration of market supervision responded that the antimonopoly Bureau of the State Administration of market supervision mainly considered two aspects when making the decision on administrative punishment. On the one hand, according to the anti-monopoly law, the way to deal with it includes returning to the state before concentration and a fine of less than 500000 yuan. Recovery to the state before concentration will have a great impact on the development of enterprises and economic operation. From the situation of centralized law enforcement in China and the experience of foreign law enforcement, it is generally applicable only when the transaction has the effect of eliminating and restricting competition. The investigation shows that the three cases do not have the effect of excluding and restricting competition, so the operators are not required to return to the state before concentration.

The main person in charge of the antimonopoly Bureau of the State Administration of market supervision said that the online economy is showing a trend of higher and higher market concentration. The market resources have accelerated to concentrate on the head platforms. The reports and reports on the monopoly problems of the platforms are increasing day by day, which shows that there are some competition risks and hidden dangers in the development of the online economy.

One of the problems is that some Internet platform enterprises have not declared concentration of business operators according to law. According to the antimonopoly law and the provisions of the State Council on the declaration standards for concentration of business operators, the concentration meeting the declaration standards shall be reported to the State Administration of market supervision in advance, and those without declaration shall not be concentrated. However, it is suspected that enterprises have violated the anti-monopoly law before the implementation of the anti-monopoly law. After receiving the report, the anti-monopoly law enforcement agency verified and investigated and dealt with the suspected cases of illegal concentration of business operators without reporting according to law. This public case is three of them.

By making public the decision on administrative punishment of the above cases, the General Administration of market supervision hopes the operators to realize that the antimonopoly law is applicable to all subjects, and treats domestic and foreign capital, state-owned and private enterprises, large and medium-sized enterprises, Internet enterprises and traditional enterprises equally and equally. The purpose is to ensure that all kinds of market entities participate in market competition fairly and create fairness Competitive business environment. Although the competition in the field of platform economy presents some new characteristics, the Internet industry is not outside the anti-monopoly law. All enterprises should strictly abide by the anti-monopoly laws and regulations.

As a matter of fact, investigating and dealing with the cases of illegal concentration has always been one of the important contents of strengthening anti-monopoly law enforcement and market supervision. It has been revealed that since 2020, the General Administration of market supervision has published 11 decisions on administrative penalties for failing to declare illegal concentration cases.