萬國法律事務所

Taiwan’s Fair Trade Commission (FTC) under the the Executive Yuan plans to amend the Fair Trade Act (FTA) to include a Leniency Policy into the FTA. "Leniency" refers here to not charging a company criminally with respect to the activity which it is accused. As such, where a party to a concerted action formally approaches the FTC with information regarding the concerted action, such member will not be charged while the other members may be severely punished.

Under the FTA, concerted actions are strictly prohibited. For example, a company is required to determine by itself the price or adjustment of price of a certain commodity or service, subject to its own expenses, operating environment and internal competition policy. Normally, if a cooperative arrangement exists between companies who have a competitive relationship, the FTC tends to decide that such cooperative arrangement constitutes a punishable concerted action. However, such arrangement is usually difficult to prove because representatives of the accused companies can attain mutual consent without anything in writing, which makes it very difficult to prove such illegal behavior.

Given the above, the FTC has decided to look at the American Leniency Policy as a model and plans to amend the FTA accordingly. The draft amendment stipulates that if one party to a concerted action formally approaches the FTC with information regarding the concerted action, such party will not be charged while the other parties may be severely punished. The FTC official further indicates that such stipulation will not only deter concerted actions but will also prevent companies from making decisions unfavorable to consumers.

The above amendment has been delivered to the public by the new Chief Commissioner, Show-Ming Wu in an FTC ceremony held on February 2, 2010.