On June 17, 2021, Llinks jointly with GIC (Global Intelligence Communications China Ltd), successfully held a seminar on "Antitrust Risks Identification and Management in Sales Incentives" at the Renaissance Shanghai Pudong Hotel. Llinks partner Dr. David Pan was invited to speak at the seminar.
Dr. Pan introduced two incentives, which are commonly used between upstream and downstream business undertakings, namely loyalty discounts and most-favored-nation clauses. Based on law enforcement precedents, Dr. Pan analyzed hidden risks in such incentive behaviors from vertical monopoly agreements and abuse of market dominance perspectives.
Shedding light on the new form of sales incentives in context of the Internet, Dr. Pan took as an example a recent case regarding a platform's abuse of market dominance and explained legal risks of incentives including traffic support/restriction and search results prioritizing/deprioritizing to the participants. At the end of the seminar, Dr. Pan shared two cases decided by the European Commission relating to the misuse of most-favored-nation clauses by platforms, as well as his observations into the domestic law enforcement trend focusing on online platforms.
