美国《横向合并指南》的最新修订及启示

U.S. Horizontal Merger Guidelines:Revision and Inspiration

美国司法部与联邦贸易委员会于2010年8月联合发布了新版《横向合并指南》,新指南进一步淡化了结构主义色彩,打破了1992年指南所创设的五步分析法,相关市场界定的重要性也被大大降低,指南的制度设计趋向一个事实为基、更富弹性的分析框架。中国应借鉴美国的成熟经验,尽快研究制定横向合并指南,从"反竞争效果认定制度群"、"反竞争效果抗辩制度群"以及"反竞争效果补救制度群"三大方面来把握横向合并指南的内容。中国应注意平衡合并审查制度的确定性与灵活性,加强合并审查中法学与经济学的融合,并积极创建合并案件跟访制度。

In August,2010,the U.S.Department of Justice and the U.S.Federal Trade Commission jointly released the final version of the revised Horizontal Merger Guidelines.The 2010 Guidelines moved away from the structuralism,arguably abandoned the five-step analytical process established by the 1992 Guidelines,and attached far less importance to the market definition.The new Guidelines intend to establish a more flexible analytical framework based on intensive facts-finding.Bearing US experiences in mind,China should enact its own horizontal merger guidelines as soon as possible while focusing on the rules of adverse competitive effects finding,rules in defense of adverse competitive effects challenges and rules of merger remedies.Meanwhile,China should also endeavor to adjust the certainty and flexibility of the rules,care for the integration of law and economics in the merger review process and build up the post-merger monitor system.