试论“恶意不兼容”条款的司法适用及规制路径

On the Judicial Application and Regulatory Pathway of the“Malicious Incompatibility”Clause

随着互联网市场因产品或者服务兼容问题产生的竞争纠纷日益增多,2017年修订的《反不正当竞争法》第12条中新增了“恶意不兼容”条款,该条款从主、客观两方面对该问题的适用做出了直接的规定,但对于司法实践中如何在《反不正当竞争法》的思维逻辑下就此类频发的“竞争”行为进行属性认定以及合理确定判定规则的问题仍存在较大争议,这也直接关系到对此类问题法律适用的准确性。本文将在《反不正当竞争法》的视野及框架下,以“寒蝉效应”借喻,从“探讨框架”“判定路径”“规则确定”“适用延伸”等方面展开分析,就“不兼容”客观技术效果的对象范围、“不兼容”主观意图适用“恶意推定”的排除、“不兼容”实际技术效果的市场影响、“不兼容”与社会福祉总量变化的关系、“不兼容”合理事由的抗辩等五个方面对“恶意不兼容”条款的适用规则进行界定,以期有助于互联网领域不兼容行为规制路径的完善与发展。

The“Malicious Incompatibility”subclause was added into Clause 12 of the Anti-Unfair Competition Law of the People's Republic of China newly amended in 2017,responding to the increasing competition disputes arising out of or in connection with the compatibility issues of products or services in the Internet market.The applicability to the compatibility issues has been directly provided for by such Malicious Incompatibility subclause from subjective and objective perspectives.However,in judicial practices,it is still highly controversial in terms of how to identify the attributes of such frequent“competition”behaviors under the logic of Anti-Unfair Competition Law and determine the rules applicable for reasonable judgment,which are also directly connected with the accuracy of the legal applicability to such issues.This paper,within the vision and framework of Anti-Unfair Competition Law,using the analogy of“chilling effect”,carries out the analysis from the aspects of discussion framework,determination pathway,rule determination,and application extension,etc.On this basis,this paper defines the applicable rules for Malicious Incompatibility subclause in terms of the scope of the objects on which the objectively technical effects of incompatibility produce,the circumstances under which the application of subjective intentions of incompatibility is excluded from the presumption of malice,the market impacts of the actual technical effect of incompatibility,the relationship between incompatibility and the changes on the social welfare,and the reasonable-cause defense of incompatibility,with the purpose of contributing to the development and improvement of the regulatory pathways for incompatibility issues in the Internet field.