On the afternoon of May 13, the State Administration of Market Supervision announced that according to the preliminary verification, the suspected monopoly of HowNet was investigated according to law. This is the first antitrust case publicly filed in the field of platform economy in 2022. HowNet subsequently announced that "today, the State Administration of market supervision and administration filed an investigation into HowNet's suspected monopoly behavior, and we firmly support and fully cooperate".
The announcement also said, "we will take this investigation as an opportunity to conduct profound self-examination, comprehensive self-examination, complete rectification, operate in accordance with the law, innovate the development model, and assume the social responsibility of China's knowledge infrastructure".
01
What did HowNet do
While the news that HowNet was filed for investigation was disclosed, Shi Jianzhong, a member of the expert advisory group of the anti monopoly Commission of the State Council and a professor of China University of political science and law, published a signed article in Guangming Daily to interpret the HowNet case.
Shi Jianzhong said that the filing and investigation of HowNet is an important measure for China's anti-monopoly law enforcement agencies to actively respond to social concerns and implement normalized supervision of the platform economy according to law. It is of great significance to maintain fair competition in the academic literature database service market, promote knowledge production and flow, promote innovation and development, and protect the interests of consumers and social public interests dominated by authors and readers.
According to the anti-monopoly law, there are mainly three kinds of monopoly behaviors, namely, the operators reach a monopoly agreement, the operators abuse their dominant market position, and the concentration of operators that have or may have the effect of excluding and restricting competition.
So, what kind of monopoly behavior does HowNet involve?
Shi Jianzhong pointed out that it is understood that the types and quantity of Chinese academic documents, the number of journals, the number and quality of exclusive journals, the scale and coverage of users, the degree of user dependence and market sales included in HowNet have been in a leading position for a long time, and unfair format terms have been set in academic document collection and service agreements, Whether purchasing academic literature or selling knowledge, the price of digital products is hardly constrained by competition. According to the analysis, we can basically determine that HowNet has a dominant market position.
Shi Jianzhong also said that by integrating all aspects of information, HowNet has signed exclusive agreements with a large number of journals and universities to restrict their cooperation with other third-party academic literature database service platforms, lock in high-quality academic resources in the upstream and artificially create barriers to knowledge flow, making it difficult for other competitors to compete fairly and affect the sharing and dissemination of knowledge. At the same time, HowNet obtains ultra-high profits by collecting at low prices and selling at high prices. In the absence of legitimate reasons, it has significantly increased the database price for many years, increased the burden of users and damaged the interests of consumers. The above behavior of HowNet destroys the fair competition order of relevant markets, hinders the dissemination of academic documents and knowledge sharing, and damages the ecological environment of knowledge innovation.
Wang Xianlin, a member of the expert advisory group of the anti monopoly Commission of the State Council and a distinguished professor of Shanghai Jiaotong University, pointed out to the e-Law of Finance and economics that "it is certain that HowNet is suspected of abusing its dominant market position regulated by the anti-monopoly law". He further explained that HowNet is likely to be suspected of monopolizing high prices (unfair asking or overpricing), or of attaching unreasonable trading conditions and refusing to trade.
According to Sun Jin, a professor at the Law School of Wuhan University, "the unfair high price of HowNet is the performance of monopoly behavior with the highest degree of consensus, including unreasonable price increases for units and unreasonable charging behavior for readers to download articles".
02
What is the significance of HowNet case
HowNet's investigation is the first anti-monopoly case in the field of platform economy to be publicly filed in 2022, and it is also the first anti-monopoly case in the field of platform economy to be publicly filed and investigated after the establishment of the state Anti Monopoly Bureau. How to evaluate the impact and significance of the case? What kind of signal does it send to regulate the platform economy?
Shi Jianzhong pointed out that HowNet is a typical platform enterprise, and its case filing and investigation is a specific measure to deeply implement the CPC Central Committee's implementation of normalized supervision, which is conducive to releasing a clear signal to the market, enabling the market to establish more reliable, stable and sustainable expectations for the rule of law, enhancing the self-compliance awareness of platform enterprises, guiding and encouraging platform enterprises to carry out high-level competition through technological innovation and model innovation, Continuously improve their core competitiveness. Through the implementation of normalized antitrust supervision, we will continue to purify the competitive environment in the field of platform economy, optimize the innovation mechanism, ensure the healthy and high-quality development of platform economy, and give better play to the positive role of platform economy in promoting scientific and technological innovation and prospering the economy, facilitating people's lives and participating in international competition.
Wang Xianlin said that although 2021 is known as the "great year" of China's antitrust, according to the investigation of HowNet, it is more appropriate to call 2021 the "first year" of strengthening antitrust, which means that antitrust will be carried out continuously and normally in the future. In the future, China will adhere to the principle of paying equal attention to both regulatory norms and promoting development, continue to strengthen antitrust, and promote high-quality development through fair competition. Antitrust regulation in the field of platform economy will also enter a stage of normalization, accuracy and predictability.
For standardizing the healthy development of academic literature database industry, Wang Xianlin believes that the current anti-monopoly law enforcement is undoubtedly necessary and timely, but in the long run, other efforts are needed.
Wang Xianlin specifically pointed out that as an important national knowledge infrastructure, HowNet has the public welfare functions of promoting academic communication and exchanges and promoting national scientific and technological innovation. Therefore, it can be considered to specify its public obligations such as universal and equal services in terms of policies and laws, so that more public can easily, equally and universally use the national knowledge infrastructure, which of course requires the provision of corresponding resource guarantee. At the same time, necessary and reasonable industry supervision measures should be implemented for HowNet, for example, the corresponding charges should be included in the national pricing or national guidance price catalogue.