Abstract
Following the fast development and technological breakthrough of the Internet application, e-commerce has derived different and challenging tasks for competition law agencies around the world. Starting from initial unfair competition issues that are directly related to intellectual property, the present Internet- related competitive issues and challenges are more of policy & industrial-wide nature. Moreover, along with the externality effect of the Internet, business sectors around the world are all trying to catch up with the e-revolution. By doing so, they utilize assorted techniques and strategies to reach a competitive edge. Such strategies, however, might effectively constraint competition and therefore run counter with the competition norms and law in various countries.
For the above-mentioned purposes, this research project intents to focus on four primary issues that have attracted attention from various sections. First, this research tries to find the proper position and function in the Internet industries for the competition law agency in the Republic of China. Moreover, this research also tries to find a balance between competition law agency and other governmental agencies in dealing with Internet industries.
During or before the collapsed of the so-called B2C (Business to Consumer) sector of the Internet, many competitors also joined together in collaboration to run the so-called B2B (Business to Business) e-marketplace. Since such business model has the effect of restraining competition, both US and EU competition agencies were concerned about such B2B e-marketplace. As a result, the second research area of this project is to study the effects of B2B e-marketplace on competition and whether it will encourage collaboration among competitors.
The third research issue of this project is to evaluate the nature of electronic
data in each and every website, and whether the competition law agency shall
involved in adjudicating the misappropriation of website information, especially
among local human resources and realty websites. Lastly, this project will
also explore the viability of the so-called "self-regulation" among
Internet competitors and will evaluate whether competition law agency shall
defer to industry self-regulation or establishing governmental regulatory
mechanism. The founding of this research project will help the government
agencies involved in fine-tuning their Internet related policies.