萬國法律事務所

19 enterprises in the cement production, storage and channeling business including Taiwan Cement have been involved in cartel and cement price fixing. Each of the enterprises has been fined between NT$ 5 million to NT$ 18 million by the Fair Trade Commission, Executive Yuan (FTC) depending on factors such as the scale of the business, illegal profits reaped, number of violations etc. The businesses resorted to administrative litigation and the Supreme Administrative Court ruled in favor of the government.

Among the enterprises, the heftiest fine was imposed on Taiwan Cement given its largest annual production volume of cement. The investigation began in year 2000 where the FTC received report that certain key cement enterprises in Taiwan have been involved in acquiring control of competitors, reducing competition between cement enterprises domestically, blocking international cement group Cemex from distributing Philippine cement in Taiwan, etc.

FTC was of the opinion, as confirmed by the Supreme Administrative Court, that cement enterprises such as Taiwan Cement acquired the operation of cement storage warehouses to block the import of foreign cement or cement clinker, reached cartel agreements with international cement groups such as Cemex not to sell in each other’s territory and prevented the import of foreign cement to artificially manipulate the price of cement to nearly double from 2000 to 2004.