Although enterprises can improve their operating efficiency and achieve economy of scale through merger and expansion of business, such expansion of business scope may lead to convergence of market players and reduction of competition, and ultimately hamper competition. Therefore, the Fair Trade Act requires that application should be made to the Fair Trade Commission if a merger of enterprises achieve certain business scale, and the Commission will decide whether to grant the approval after having evaluated the impact of such merger on the overall economy and market competition. In doing so, the Commission seeks to ensure that all merger cases will meet the requirement for promotion of overall economy and public interest.

Table: Statistics on Enterprise Merger( Unit: Case  )

Item Year	Cases of Merger Approved or not Prohibited	Mergers-by types in Para.1,Art.10 of the FTA
		Subparagraph 1	Subparagraph 2	Subparagraph 3	Subparagraph 4	Subparagraph 5
1992	6	3	1	2	-	-
1993	107	3	9	1	-	94
1994	259	5	10	4	-	240
1995	426	4	12	2	1	408
1996	339	3	14	3	6	314
1997	535	5	11	10	5	506
1998	843	3	23	16	15	791
1999	1,032	6	14	14	-	998
2000	1,177	26	16	59	1	1081
2001	1,087	23	59	24	2	997
2002	117	6	23	2	-	93
2003	31	9	18	4	1	5
2004	18	3	13	2	-	4
2005	34	6	23	4	3	12
2006	34	6	25	1	2	22
2007	37	4	21	8	4	18
2008	36	2	29	4	4	14
2009	27	7	20	3	-	13
2010	19	-	15	3	2	10
2011	28	4	24	2	5	16
2012	26	2	21	6	2	16
2013	30	5	21	2	9	18
2014	33	3	25	3	7	19
2015	26	4	21	4	5	20
2016	33	3	29	3	2	26
2017	11	1	7	1	3	5
2018	26	3	22	1	9	21
2019	26	2	22	4	8	17
2020	35	-	35	-	9	31
2021	32	2	26	5	10	25