数字平台国际反垄断监管冲突下区域贸易协定竞争政策条款之困

Dilemmas of Competition Policy Provisions in Regional Trade Agreement under the Conflicts of International Antitrust Regulation on Digital Platforms

近年来,数字平台巨头大举进入各国市场,在全球范围内展开竞争,引发了许多国家的反垄断关注。同时,虽然各国开始积极主动协调反垄断监管策略,但冲突始终存在。首先,各自不同的监管态度和路径可能引发冲突;其次,发展中国家也会由于缺乏足够执法资源和市场重要性而丧失其执法的有效性和威慑力;再次,由于"效果原则"的影响也会产生管辖权冲突。然而,作为竞争政策协调的主要途径,区域贸易协定,无论是一般区域贸易协定中的竞争政策条款还是区域竞争协定,都仅呈现出较浅层的实体规则协调与执法合作。这些竞争政策条款或区域竞争协定未能结合数据要素、数字行业监管标准、监管科技这些与数字市场规制紧密相关的特性,难以有效地规制数字平台巨头的跨境反竞争行为。这些问题或许可以通过区域内国家深化竞争实体或执法合作条款,以及在数字贸易协定中制定数字竞争政策条款的方式得到缓解。

In recent years,digital platform giants have entered different national markets on a large scale,competing globally and sparking antitrust concerns in many countries.At the same time,although countries have begun to proactively commence antitrust regulation,conflicts still persist.Firstly,different regulatory attitudes and paths lead to conflicts;secondly,developing countries may lose their enforcement effectiveness and deterrence due to lacking adequate resources and market importance;Thirdly,jurisdictional conflicts may arise because of the influence of the“Effect Principle”.However,regional trade agreements,regardless of competition policy provisions in general RTAs or regional competition agreements,as the main vehicles for competition policy harmonisation,present only a shallow level of harmonisation of substantive rules and enforcement cooperation,possibly impelling firms to avoid regulation.These competition policy provisions or agreements also fail to incorporate data elements,regulatory standards for digital industry and RegTech,which are closely-related features for digital market regulation,so that it is hard to regulate cross-border anti-competitive conducts of digital giant platforms effectively.These problems could be mitigated by deepening substantial competition rules or enforcement cooperation provisions regionally,as well as by developing digital competition policy provisions in digital trade agreements.