平台佣金征收的影响因素及剥削性滥用分析

An Analysis on Effective Factors and Exploitative Abuse of Commission Charged by Platform

不同类型的具有市场支配地位的平台往往具有较大差别的佣金水平,这主要是受到平台收费模式和收费定价方式的影响,不存在简单的高佣金就一定构成非法的判定标准。本文分析指出,影响平台佣金水平的因素为成本因素、市场需求因素、平台竞争因素和供应商的谈判能力。成本因素、市场需求因素、供应商的谈判能力决定了平台佣金的基础水平。从反垄断审查的角度来说,成本因素、市场需求因素、供应商的谈判能力决定的佣金水平是合理的,而基于市场势力索要的高佣金是不合理的。本文在测算在线零售平台(淘宝、天猫、京东和拼多多)和在线订餐平台(美团)市场势力的基础上,重点分析了具有市场支配地位的平台所设定佣金的合理性,并据此提出了相应的反垄断政策建议。

As the ’gatekeeper’ platforms has strong relative market power, they are possible to exert unfair commissions on merchants in order to obtain higher monopoly profits. As the Commission rate of the platform is affected by factors such as the business model and pricing strategy of the platform, how to determine whether the commission charged by the dominant platform constitutes illegal exploitative abuse has become a prominent problem in antitrust law enforcement.This article points out that factors affecting commissions rate involve service costs, demand price elasticity, market power, and merchant bargaining power. Cost, market demand, and supplier negotiation capabilities determine the baseline of commissions. From the perspective of antitrust enforcement, it is illegal to determine commissions based on market power. Platform market power is the decisive factor in determining whether high commission constitutes illegal exploitation abuse. Further, based on the data of major digital platforms, this article calculates the market power of dominant platforms in online retail market and online ordering market of China. We integrate the comparative method and factor analysis method to analyze the rationality of the Commission rate of the dominated platforms in online retail market and online ordering market. It is found that Taobao is increasing online advertising fees and Meituan has imposed high commissions on small and medium-sized merchant. These phenomena are likely to be an unreasonable exploitative pricing, and should become the focus of antitrust.Compared with the previous literature, this article makes an expansion in the following two aspects. First, it analyzes the charging model of the platform and the main factors affecting the charging rate of the platform, and then constructs an analytical framework for systematically evaluating the rationality of the commission rate of the platform.Second, different from the qualitative analysis of platform market power in the existing literature, this article calculates the size of platform market power by calculating Lerner Index, and employs comparable methods and factor analysis methods in systematically discussing the rationality of commission rate of different platforms.This article reveals the influencing factors of platform Commission rate, and points out that market power is the determinant for whether high commission constitutes illegal exploitative abuse. The research results will help government departments better formulate platform regulatory policies in the rapid development of platform economy, thus promoting the healthy development of platform market.