Taiwan’s Fair Trade Commission Becomes Independent of Executive Yuan

In order to increase the role of the Fair Trade Commission’s (“FTC”) as a more independent body of the government, the amendment to the organizational law under which the establishment of the FTC was authorized became effective earlier this year. In addition to the existing 5 departments in charge of planning, competition in service sector, competition in manufacturing sector, fair trade, and legal affairs, a new department of information and economic analysis has been added to head off the task of complex analysis that often arises in the course of enforcing the Fair Trade Law. Further to the recent changes in the organizational structure of the FTC, it is expected that more changes are under way to include powers to conduct searches and make seizure, as a means to complementing its investigative powers, although the judiciary has yet to concur with such an expansive power. It has also been discussed to increase the period of enforcing administrative penalty from 3 to 5 years. Currently, the administrative penalty for monopolistic behavior includes a monetary fine of from 50,000 to 25 million NT dollars, which may be revised upward to 50 million NT dollars or in the case of a repeat violator, to 100 million NT dollars.