Cases Received

Chinese Taipei


Classification and Definition of Case Statistics of the Fair Trade Commission

I. Complaint

Complaint refers to a case filed by reporting agency or referred by other government agencies in writing (including E-mail and fax) or oral (recorded by the FTC) to the FTC, stating a possible violation of the provisions of the laws enforced by the FTC. The results of processing including:

  1. Decision
    Decision refers to a complaint reviewed and a disposition made by the FTC's Commissioners Meeting that the defendant is confirmed to violate the laws enforced by the FTC and will receive a decision document.
  2. No-action Decision
    No-action decision refers to a complaint reviewed (or authorized persons in accordance with a precedent) and a disposition made by the FTC's Commissioners Meeting that the defendant is confirmed not to violate the laws enforced by the FTC. Reasons for the no-action decision can be classified into following categories:
    (1) Cases subject to the regulation by the Article 45 or the Article 46 of the FTA.
    (2) Failing to meet substantive prerequisites: insufficient evidences, failing to meet substantive criteria; the defendant had already taken corrective measure, or in a minor case a settlement had already been reached between two sides.
    (3) Others: reasons may not be classified into the aforementioned items.
  3. Administrative Action
    Administrative action refers to measures taken by the FTC's Commissioners Meeting (or authorized persons in accordance with a precedent) in response to a defendant who violated the laws enforced by the FTC or the spirit thereof. Administrative action could be any of the followings:
    (1) Industrial warning (guidance): cases for which no decision ruling will be made before a general administrative guidance is issued to require a large number of specific parties' correction of behavior that might violate the laws enforced by the FTC or affect trading order.
    (2) Business warning: cases for which no decision ruling will be made before an administrative guidance is issued to require an individual party's correction of behavior that might violate the laws enforced by the FTC or affect trading order.
    (3) Written advice for competent authority to take appropriate measures: cases for which the competent authority is advised by the FTC to take appropriate measures to solve competition concerns.
    (4) Other measures:cases that may not be classified into the aforementioned three items.
  4. Termination of Review
    Rejection of complaint refers to the complaint goes beyond FTC's responsibilities, shall be referred to another agency according to division of jurisdictions between agencies, or fails to meet the FTC's procedural requirements.
    (1) Reasons for rejection of complaint:criminal case, civil dispute, case fallen upon other agency's responsibility, failing to meet procedural requirements (e.g., the filing party withdrew its complaint, failed to supplement information required, been out of contact, complained anonymously, or the complained party not fitting into the definitions stipulated in the laws enforced by the FTC), and the others (not falling into the aforementioned 4 categories).
    (2) Results of rejection of complaint:replied with a written explanation, filed for record, or referred to another agency.
  5. Termination of Investigation
    Termination of review refers to the FTC's decision to terminate an investigation once the enterprise under investigation has fulfilled its commitments by taking specific measures to cease and rectify its alleged illegal conduct according to the Article 28 of the FTA.

II. Application for Concerted Action

Application for concerted action refers to an application submitted by enterprises to the FTC for an approval to conduct a concerted action, an extension of time limit for the approval, and amendment of approved content of a concerted action according to the Article 15 and the Paragraph 2, the Article 16 of the Fair Trade Act. The results of processing including:

  1. Approved
    An approved case refers to an application for concerted action, an extension of time limit for the approval, and amendment of approved content of a concerted action for which the FTC decides to grant approval at its Commissioners' Meeting.
  2. Partially Approved
    A case partially approved refers to an application for concerted action, an extension of time limit for the approval, and amendment of approved content of a concerted action for which the FTC decides to grant approval for part of the applied items at its Commissioners' Meeting.
  3. Rejected
    A rejected case refers to an application for concerted action, an extension of time limit for the approval, and amendment of approved content of a concerted action against which the FTC decides to reject at its Commissioners' Meeting.
  4. Termination of Review
    A review of an application case is terminated refers to an application which contains a fact taking place before the Fair Trade Act became effective, or a case whose handling results can not be classified into any one of the aforementioned three categories and which is already closed as proposed.

III. Merger Notifications

It refers to a merger notification filed by an enterprise to the FTC according to the Article 11 of the Fair Trade Act. The results of processing including:

  1. Merger not Prohibited
    Merger not prohibited refers to a merger proposal not prohibited or objected by the Commissioners' Meetings of the FTC.
  2. Merger Prohibited
    Merger prohibited refers to a merger proposal prohibited by the Commissioners' Meetings of the FTC.
  3. Termination of Review
    Termination of review happens either when notifying parties fail to provide sufficient documents to meet the FTC's written request, or the results of cases handling cannot be categorized into merger not prohibited or merger prohibited.

IV. Request for Explanation

Request for explanation refers to a request of a government agency, an enterprise, or an individual to the FTC for explanation of certain provisions of the laws enforced by the FTC or a written request of a government agency to comment whether a case is applicable to the laws enforced by the FTC. The results of processing including:

  1. Explanation
    Explanation refers to a written statement which, issued by the FTC's Commissioner' Meeting, deliberates and analyzes the meanings of the laws enforced by the FTC for its enforcement work upon a government agency, an enterprise, or an individual's request.
  2. Inquiry-answering
    (1) Inquiry-answering refers to a response provided by responsible personnel, instead of the FTC Commissioners' Meeting, in accordance with a previous explanation or based on the existent laws and regulations whose provisions are already adequate to clarify the question raised or whose provisions are very clear without controversy and need no further interpretation.
    (2) It also refers to a response to a request of FTC's advisory opinion by a court, a prosecutor's office, or an investigation agency.
  3. Termination of Review
    Termination of review happens when a request for explanation goes beyond the FTC's responsibilities and for which the FTC has no authority to provide explanation, or the contents of the request are vague and the party making such request fails to respond to or ignores the FTC's request for supplementary explanation.

V. FTC Self-initiated Investigation

The FTC self-initiated investigation means that the FTC take initiative to investigate, per its authorization and duties, possible illegal actions against the laws enforced by the FTC in accordance with an established procedure. This category includes actions taken by the FTC itself and triggered by the oral interpellation by the legislators, anonymous complaints, and anonymous complaints referred by other agencies. The results of processing including:

  1. Decision
    Decision refers to a disposition made by the FTC's Commissioners' Meeting that a FTC self-initiated investigation case is confirmed to violate the laws enforced by the FTC and will receive a decision document.
  2. No-action Decision
    No-action decision refers to a disposition made by the FTC's Commissioners Meeting (or authorized persons in accordance with a precedent) that a FTC self-initiated investigation case is confirmed no violation of the FTA or relevant regulation. Reasons for the no-action decision can be classified into following categories:
    (1) Cases subject to the regulation by the Article 45 or the Article 46 of the FTA.
    (2) Failing to meet substantive prerequisites: insufficient evidences, failing to meet substantive criteria; the defendant had taken corrective measure already, or in a minor case a settlement had already been reached between two parties.
    (3) Others: reasons may not be classified into the aforementioned items.
  3. Administrative Action
    Administrative action refers to measures taken by the FTC's Commissioners Meeting (or authorized persons in accordance with a precedent) in response to a FTC self-initiated investigation case which violated the laws enforced by the FTC or the spirit thereof. Administrative action could be any of the followings:
    (1) Industrial warning (guidance): cases for which no decision ruling will be made before a general administrative guidance is issued to require a large number of specific parties' correction of behavior that might violate the laws enforced by the FTC or affect trading order.
    (2) Business warning: cases for which no decision ruling will be made before an administrative guidance is issued to require an individual party's correction of behavior that might violate the laws enforced by the FTC or affect trading order.
    (3) Written advice for competent authority to take appropriate measures: Cases for which the agency-in-charge is advised by the FTC to take appropriate measures to solve competition concerns.
    (4) Other measures:Cases which may not be classified into the aforementioned three items.
  4. Termination of Review
    Aborgation of review happens when a FTC self-initiated investigation case goes beyond FTC's responsibilities or should be monitored and then closed.
  5. Termination of Investigation
    Termination of review refers to the FTC's decision to terminate an investigation once the enterprise under investigation has fulfilled its commitments by taking specific measures to cease and rectify its alleged illegal conduct according to the Article 28 of the FTA.

Note:

The terms and the definitions were approved by the FTC staff meeting on December 22, 1994, came into effect in January 1995, and were then amended in September 1995, February 2002, August 2005, February 2011, August 2012, and April 2015.

Table 1: Statistics on Cases Received and Processed by the Commission
Unit:Case
Item
Year
Total
Complaints
Application for Concerted Action
Merger
Request for Explanation
Total
56,413
43,959
231
7,163
5,060
1992
1,296
1,039
12
13
232
1993
1,567
1,243
9
112
203
1994
2,020
1,499
11
262
248
1995
2,486
1,768
2
435
281
1996
2,234
1,636
12
334
252
1997
2,277
1,480
23
561
213
1998 
2,444
1,335
13
863
233
1999  2,757 1,522 7 1,064 164
2000 2,697 1,372 12 1,187 126
2001 2,556 1,381 4 1,089 82
2002 1,387 1,186 8 132 61
2003 1,100 999 12 50 39
2004 1,148 1,058 2 33 55
2005 1,833 1,632 7 54 140
2006 1,440 1,306 9 79 46
2007 1,340 1,213 3 69 55
2008 1,507

1,404

6 61 36
2009 1,501

1,402

6 58 35
2010 1,299

1,206

- 45 48
2011 1,517

1,361

7 57 92
2012 2,114

1,955

10 52 97
2013 1,973

1,623

4 51 295
2014 2,001

1,538

8 68 387
2015 1,666

1,302

15 60 289
2016 1,960

1,587

5 71 297
2017 1,960

1,671

7 43 239
2018 2,147

1,802

3 69 273
2019 1,772

1,507

4 64 197
2020 2,119

1,855

9 65 190
2021 2,295

2,076

1 62 156

 

Table 2: Statistics on Concluded Complaints -- Categorized by Results
Unit:Case
Item

Year

Total
Decision
No-action Decision
Administrative Action
Review Terminated
Termination of Investigation
Cases Consolidated 
Total 43,830 3,220 6,875 355 30,912 1 2,467
1992
757
51
100
-
591
-
15
1993
1,094
79
199
7
749
-
60
1994
1,408
118
306
40
852
-
92
1995
1,643
158
280
75
997
-
133
1996
1,633
178
325
62
931
-
137
1997
1,662
206
315
34
912
-
195
1998 
1,409
225
278
23
773
-
110
1999  1,453 154 281 17 912 - 89
2000 1,384 202 301 13 759 - 109
2001 1,404 192 252 6 825 - 129
2002 1,284 189 218 4 798 - 75
2003 1,056 123 195 3 659 - 76
2004 1,012 101 176 8 680 - 47
2005 1,541 97 225 11 1,114 - 94
2006 1,304 101 390 15 713 - 85
2007 1,304 112 342 2 762 - 86
2008 1,477 101 353 2 967 - 54
2009 1,456 140 352 3 909 - 52
2010 1,243 109 291 1 793 - 49
2011 1,346 110 278 15 898 - 45
2012 1,895 86 316 6 1,340 - 147
2013 1,643 102 276 1 1,160 - 104
2014 1,642 77 199 2 1,275 - 89
2015 1,283 37 101 - 1,108 - 37
2016 1,545 42 129 2 1,327 1 44
2017 1,728 36 104 1 1,485 - 102
2018 1,782 35 81 - 1,617 - 49
2019 1,502 19 77 - 1,386 - 20
2020 1,815 13 58 2 1,692 - 50
2021 2,125 27 77 - 1,928 - 93

 

Table 3: Statistics on Concluded of Concerted Action -- Categorized by Results
Unit: Case
Item


Year
Total Application for Concerted Action Amending concerted action approval item
Sub-Total Approved Rejected Partially Approved Review Terminated
Total
230
194
148
10
11
25
36
1992
9
9
5
3
-
1
-
1993
9
9
7
1
-
1
-
1994
13
13
9
3
1
-
-
1995
1
1
-
-
1
-
-
1996
8
8
5
-
-
3
-
1997
18
18
11
-
1
6
-
1998
22
22
18
-
4
-
-
1999  8 8 4 2 -
2
-
2000 9 9 6 1 2
-
-
2001 6 6 3 - -
3
-
2002 8 8 6 - -
2
-
2003 14 14 12 - 2
-
-
2004 1 1 1 - -
-
-
2005 6 6 5 - -
1
-
2006 10 10 9 - -
1
-
2007 4 4 4 - - - -
2008 5 5 5 - - - -
2009 6 6 6 - - - -
2010 1 1 1 - - - -
2011 5 4 3 - - 1 1
2012 12 9 8 - - 1 3
2013 4 - - - - - 4
2014 7 3 3 - - - 4
2015 14 8 7 - - 1 6
2016 5 1 - - - 1 4
2017 7 3 3 - - - 4
2018 5 1 1 - - - 4
2019 3 1 - - - 1 2
2020 10 6 6 - - - 4
2021 - - - - - - -

 

Table 4: Statistics on Concluded of Merger - Categorized by Results
Unit:Case
item

Year & Month
Application for Merger
Total
Approved
Rejected

Review
Terminated

Cases
Consolidated

Total
6,009
5,904
3
77
25
1992
8
6
-
2
-
1993
113
107
-
4
2
1994
259
259
-
-
-
1995
429
426
-
-
3
1996
340
339
-
1
-
1997
537
535
-
1
1
1998
855
843
-
9
3
1999
1,045
1,032
-
9
4
2000
1,206
1,177
3
18
8
2001
1,118
1,087
-
29
2
2002 (1-2)
99
93
-
4
2
Item
Year & Month
Merger For Notification
Total
Merger
not Prohibited
Merger
Prohibited
Review
Terminated
Cases
Consolidated
Total
1,144
566
9
563
6
2002
(2-12)
42
24
1
17
-
2003
50
31
-
19
-
2004
31
18
-
13
-
2005
54
34
-
20
-
2006
77
34
-
42
1
2007
67
37
1
29
-
2008
65
36
2
27
-
2009
57
27
2
28
-
2010
44
19
1
24
-
2011
60
28
-
32
-
2012
47
26
-
20
1
2013
50
30
-
19
1
2014
66
33
-
33
-
2015
63
26
-
35
2
2016
69
33
-
35
1
2017
44
11
-
33
-
2018
67
26
1
40
-
2019
60
26
1
33
-
2020
62
35
-
27
-
2021
69
32
-
37
-
Table 5: Statistics of Closed Cases Involving the Commission's Explanation - Categorized by Results
Unit:Case
Item


Year
Total
Explanation or

Inquiry-Answering

Review Terminated
Cases Consolidated 
Total
5,058
3,838
1,121
99
1992
173
133
39
1
1993
220
164
53
3
1994
251
180
59
12
1995
279
157
109
13
1996
246
175
60
11
1997
238
148
86
4
1998
235
156
76
3
1999 
169
108
60
1
2000

129

89

39

1
2001
84
52
32
-
2002
71
45
24
2
2003
36
28
7
1
2004 55 40 14 1
2005 138 64 73 1
2006 47 35 12 -
2007 58 39 19 -
2008 36 29 7 -
2009 34 25 9 -
2010 50 34 16 -
2011 89 55 33 1
2012 99 58 41 -
2013 292 266 26 -
2014 385 337 45 3
2015 291 267 23 1
2016 292 252 34 6
2017
245
216
27
2
2018
273
247
24
2
2019
175
151
24
-
2020
207
160
21
26
2021
161
128
29
4