数字经济领域初创企业并购的反垄断法救济措施

Antitrust Law Remedies for Startup Acquisitions in the Digital Economy

初创企业并购在数字经济领域较为常见,它与制药行业的扼杀式并购存在区别。初创企业并购可能是横向并购,但更多的是纵向或混合并购,且目标产品或服务在并购完成后一般被整合到平台的生态系统中,进而带来资源整合效率。初创企业并购的反垄断法救济措施,应基于并购的不同种类及其损害差异而设置。在并购双方涉及横向业务重叠时,反垄断执法机构可要求并购方作出禁止“扼杀”和独立运营的承诺,以确保目标产品或服务的持续运营,并削弱并购方的市场力量叠加。当并购涉及重要资源而可能产生市场封锁效果时,执法机构可要求并购方作出确保市场开放的承诺。当并购导致平台企业业务线扩张并可能引发利益冲突时,执法机构可施加“功能分离”的救济措施,将可能产生利益冲突的业务线与平台企业其他业务分隔开来。在涉及大量用户数据的初创企业并购中,设立独立的“数据仓库”是防止用户数据被过度商业化利用的重要举措;同时,用户的选择自由也要被充分保障。相比上述行为性救济措施,结构性救济在初创企业并购中的适用应遵循比例原则,通常仅在极为特殊的市场结构中才予以考虑。

Startup acquisitions are common in the digital economy,and they are different from killer acquisitions in the pharmaceutical industry.Startup acquisitions may be horizontal,but more are vertical or conglomerate.after the Acquisition is completed,the acquired product or service is generally integrated into the platform’s ecosystem,so it may bring economic efficiency.The anti-trust law remedies should be set according to the types and damages of the start-up acquisitions.When the acquisition parties are competitors,the antitrust authority may require the acquirer to make commitments of prohibition of“killing”and independent operation,so as to ensure that the acquired products or services remain in the market after the acquisition and weaken the acquirer’s market power brought by the acquisition.When the object of the acquisition includes some important resources,the acquisition may cause anticompetitive foreclosure.In such cases,the authority may require the acquirer to commit to keep the market open.When acquisitions lead to expansion of business lines of the platform and may lead to conflicts of interest,the authority many impose some“functional separations”requirements on the acquirer to isolate the business lines that may cause conflicts of interest from other business lines of the platform.In startup acquisitions involving a large amount of user data,the establishment of an independent“data silo”is an important measure to prevent excessive commercial use of user data.At the same time,users’freedom of choice must be fully guaranteed.Compared with the above behavioral remedies,the application of structural remedies in startup acquisitions should follow the principle of proportionality.Generally,they are only considered in very specific market structures.