Law enforcement adaptation needed to manage competition in the digital era 执法应加快改革步伐以应对数字时代竞争

Rapid Internet Development and technology advances take turns to surprise people’s imagination while at the same time, challenging the current order, both socially and economically.

互联网的飞速发展和科技进步轮番给人类的想象力带来惊喜，也不断挑战着社会和经济秩序。

The Internet creates numerous business opportunities as well as new business models. For example, e-commerce, and especially cross-border e-commerce, is increasingly seen by governments, business and even ordinary people as a promising way to avoid being left out of the fast-changing global market. Internet companies, of which most did not yet exist five years ago, are continuously proposing new services or reshaping their existing online services. The market dynamism leads to fierce competition between different market players. The current competition rules and policies can hardly succeed in keeping pace with the market dynamics.

互联网创造了无数的商业机会，也使得众多新商业模式应运而生。举例来说，电子商务，特别是跨境电子商务越来越多地得到政府、企业、甚至是个人的青睐与重视，因为不想被快速变化的全球市场所淘汰，通过跨境电子商务重振旗鼓对他们来说正是这样一个时髦而前景广阔的方式。互联网公司，甚至它们当中大部分在五年前还是根本不存在的，今天也都在不断地推出新业务或者升级其现有的网上服务。市场的新兴活力为各市场参与方之间带来了前所未有的激烈竞争，但就目前来看，竞争规则和政策似乎并没有成功地跟上这一快速进化的市场步伐。

Fudan Development Forum 2016 “Managing Competition in the Digital Era” (provided by Fudan Development Institute)

2016复旦发展论坛之“如何应对数字时代的竞争”（照片来源：复旦发展研究院）

How applying competition policy to the new eco-system shaped by the digital revolution? This was the main theme of the Fudan Development Forum 2016, entitled ‘Managing Competition in the Digital Era’, which took place in Fudan University, Shanghai on 14th November, bringing together experts and scholars in competition policy and digital economy from both China and Europe.

如何将竞争政策应用到被数字革命冲击并重塑的新市场生态系统中去呢？这也是2016复旦发展论坛重点讨论的专题之一。以“如何应对数字时代的竞争”为主题，本次论坛于11月14日在上海复旦大学举行，来自中欧数字经济和竞争政策领域的多位专家和学者应邀出席。

Giovanni Pitruzzella, President of the Italian Competition Authority pointed out that the impact of the digital revolution is redefining the value chain of entire industries, creating new ecosystems, establishing new business models and reshaping markets as well as social interactions, “In fact, as the competitive landscape of many industries is undergoing such profound transformations, the need to understand and manage the implications for antitrust policy are also growing.”

意大利反垄断组织主席Giovanni Pitruzzella指出，数字革命所带来的影响正在重新定义所有行业的价值链、创造新的生态系统、建立新的商业模式、并重塑市场和人际交往，“事实上，由于很多行业的竞争格局都在经历着如此深刻的变革，对于反垄断政策来说，了解和管理这一变革意义的需求也与日俱增。”

Giovanni Pitruzzella, President of the Italian Competition Authority spoke at the Forum (provided by Fudan Development Institute)

意大利反垄断组织主席Giovanni Pitruzzella在论坛上发言（照片来源：复旦发展研究院）

By analyzing four main areas of competition enforcement which are affected by this process, namely anticompetitive agreements, abuse of dominant position, merger control and competition advocacy, Pitruzzella called the competition authorities to develop their analytical capabilities and strategic stance in order to deal with the distinguishing features of the digital economy, such as multi-sided platforms, new online distribution models, big data, and disruptive innovation.

通过对四个主要受该过程影响的竞争执法领域进行分析，即反竞争协议、滥用支配地位、并购控制和竞争倡导，Pitruzzella倡议竞争主管机构近一步发展优化其分析能力和战略立场，以应对数字经济的新特点，诸如多边平台、新在线产品分发模型、大数据和破坏性创新等。

From an antitrust perspective, Pitruzzella stressed the importance yet remained challenge of how to strike a balance between over and under regulation enforcement. “The key challenge for antitrust enforcers is to distinguish  anticompetitive acts from aggressive but pro-competitive acts. A more economic and technical approach is needed”, he said.

Pitruzzella从反垄断角度强调了在过度和适度监管执法之间寻求平衡的重要性，而这恰恰也是我们所面临的严峻挑战之一。他说：“对反垄断执法机构来说最关键的问题是如何区别反竞争行为和那些具有侵略性的促进竞争行为。我们需要一个更加经济、专业的方法。”

“We need more bridges rather than walls. We need more dialogue internationally. This is not a task that can be accomplished by one single state.”

“我们需要更多的是桥梁而非围墙。我们需要更多的国际对话。这绝不是单单一个国家就可以完成的任务。”

Luigi Gambardella, President of ChinaEU also called for a modern competition law that fits nowadays-digital trend.

中欧数字协会主席Luigi Gambardella同样期待一个顺应当前数字趋势的现代竞争法。

Luigi Gambardella, President of ChinaEU spoke at the Forum (provided by Fudan Development Institute)

中欧数字协会主席Luigi Gambardella在论坛上发言（照片来源：复旦发展研究院）

Competition law was designed for the industrial society of the 19th century, where products were tangible, markets easy to define and finding infringements rather straightforward. But this is not the case any more for digital economy where neither boundaries nor physical services are easily identified.

竞争法产生于19世纪的工业社会，那时所有的工业产品都是有形的，各个市场的范围一目了然，所有的侵犯行为也都直截了当。但数字经济却有着截然不同的属性，不管是市场界限还是物质服务都不再能够被轻易鉴别。

Despite the fact that considerable efforts have been devoted over the past decade to make EU competition law enforcement more robust and predictable, Gambardella believed antitrust enforcement continues to be fluid, non-objective and sometimes retroactive.

虽然过去十年欧盟付出了很大努力试图赋予欧盟竞争法更强和更高预见性的执行力，但在Gambardella看来，反垄断执法仍然是不稳定的、不客观的、甚至有些时候是起反作用的。

“Barriers to entry are created by government, not by private businesses. The biggest barrier to entry in our sector are patents”, said Gambardella. But Instead of focusing on innovating and improving innovations, which are the key drivers to power up digital economy, current patent law is inducing companies to accumulate patents, which makes patent platforms the worst kind of cartels.

“任何领域和市场的进入障碍都是由政府创造的，而非私营企业。进入我们领域最大的障碍是专利”，Gambardella说道。现有的专利法并没有把精力集中在创新和改善创新这两个推动数字经济的关键驱动力上，而是诱导企业单纯积累专利数量，这也使得专利平台成为了糟糕的垄断联盟。

The traditional justification for patents is that welfare effects of the incentive to develop a new product flowing from patent protection are more important than the economic inefficiency created by the protection.  This justification seemed convincing in the “old” industrial sectors. However, in the fast moving digital world, where every innovation is building on other innovations, requiring lots of cross patenting, the traditional justification makes no more sense. Gambardella proposed therefore that compulsory licensing—meaning that governments would allow innovators to integrate patented products or processes in their products, without the preliminary consent of the patent owners—would be used for the sake of technology development.

专利的传统辩护理由是，通过专利保护刺激一个新产品开发的福利效应远比专利保护所产生的低效经济重要。这一理由似乎在一些“老的”工业部门仍适用，但在快速变动的数字世界，每个创新都建立在其他创新的基础上，这就需要大量的交叉专利，那么传统的专利规则在这里就是毫无意义的。因此，Gambardella建议，为了推动科技发展，推行强制许可–即政府可以依照专利法规定，在不经专利权人同意情况下，直接允许其他单位或个人实施其发明创造。

“In order to speed up the deployment of 5G in China, I would advise its government to make use of compulsory licensing instead of using the long and indirect antitrust road.”

“为了加快5G在中国的部署，我建议政府采用强制许可来替代冗长而曲折的反垄断之路。”

Group photo of all speakers at the Forum (provided by Fudan Development Institute)

论坛发言者合影（照片来源：复旦发展研究院）

During the roundtable, further critical issues were discussed affecting the application of competition policy to the new digital area, such as the respective roles of government and of the market, along with the grey area between them. In particular, the borderline between necessary and excessive patent protection, sovereignty in cyberspace, ownership of the data were raised by attendees, including Liu Shuhua, Director of the National Research Center for Emergency Response Capacity of Fudan University, Gong Baihua, Professor of international law in the law school of Fudan University, Cai Cuihong, Associatte Professor in Center for American Studies of Fudan University, and Shen Guolin, Executive Vice Director of Center for Think-tank Research and Management in Shanghai.

在圆桌讨论环节，包括复旦大学国际关系与公共事务学院副教授刘淑华、复旦大学法学院教授龚柏华、复旦大学美国研究中心副教授蔡翠红、上海市高校智库研究和管理中心执行副主任沈国麟在内的与会嘉宾们还围绕其他影响竞争政策在数字领域应用的重要问题，如政府和市场各自的角色及它们中间的灰色地带，特别是必要和过度专利保护的分界线、网络空间主权、数据所有权等进行了热烈探讨。

Established in 2011, Fudan Development Forum brings together eminent experts and scholars of various domains from both domestic and overseas. Top academics, politicians and economists gather once a year to discuss topical issues and explore policy alternatives for China’s development and reform. The forum influenced China’s key development strategies such as the country’s new reform, globalization proposals and the Silk Road economic belt project. The forum provides policy recommendations about China’s development policy, based on discussions of the forum.

创立于2011年的复旦发展论坛汇聚了众多国内外诸多领域的知名学者专家。中外的顶尖学者、政客和经济学家们每年都会参加该论坛，共同探索中国发展与改革开放的战略选择，为中国发展做出战略预判、提供政策建议。论坛为中国的改革新格局、中国的全球化机遇和丝绸之路经济带等国家层面的重大战略贡献思想精髓，形成了众多极具参考价值的政策建议。