Cause Analysis and Enlightenment of "Certainty" in China's Anti-monopoly Administrative Law Enforcement and Prospect of Law Enforcement in Tobacco Industry

Abstract

China’s anti-monopoly administrative law enforcement is highly certain, that is, most parties generally abandon the filing of administrative lawsuits after receiving the punishment decision made by the anti-monopoly law enforcement agency. "Certainty" is formed by the three factors: illegal acts generally lack actionable value; the parties lack reasonable expectations towards changing the punishment way and reducing the punishment amount; and there are abundant formal punishment and substantive reconciliation. In this context, it is necessary to build scientific law enforcement rules and flexible law enforcement mechanisms to reduce false interventions in "false positives". At the same time, we need perfect the anti-monopoly follow-up litigation to reinforce the link between anti-monopoly civil litigation and administrative law enforcement. However, in industries with monopoly license such as tobacco industry, it is also necessary to explore the establishment of a public interest litigation mechanism to protect the interests of market subjects at the same time of safeguarding social public interests.