Antitrust & Competition: Asia in Focus

Legislative Development
A draft bill to further modernize Taiwan's primary competition law statute, the Fair Trade Act ("FTA"), last amended in 2011, has been sent to the Legislature for consideration. The proposed amendments in the draft bill seek to modify qualification standards, reporting thresholds and exemptions, the FTC review period, and search and seizure powers, to strengthen investigations of anticompetitive conduct.

The proposed amendments in the draft bill primarily aim to:

• authorize the Fair Trade Commission to adjust the monopolistic enterprises qualification standards;
• modify the thresholds and create exemptions for combination (mergers) from reporting;
• amend exemption clauses and extend the effective period of FTC's approval for concerted actions; and