Provincial Government Department of Transportation sent a letter inquiring whether the Kaohsiung Harbor Bureau's liberalizing operation of the vessel water supply business to one private firm without consideration of zoning and classification, is in accordance with the Fair Trade Law
Chinese Taipei
Case:
Provincial Government Department of Transportation sent a letter inquiring whether the Kaohsiung Harbor Bureau's liberalizing operation of the vessel water supply business to one private firm without consideration of zoning and classification, is in accordance with the Fair Trade Law
Key words:
Commercial Harbor Law, government's rightful power, discriminatory treatment
Reference:
Fair Trade Commission Decision of April 8, 1998 (the 335th Commission Meeting); Letter (86) Kung Yi Tzu No. 8714215-002
Industry:
Seaport Industry (6123)
Relevant Laws:
Article 19(ii) of the Fair Trade Law
Summary:
According to the Provincial Government Department of Transportation(TPGDOT), the water supply business must coordinate with the shipping schedule in order to provide adequate service. For the purposes of unifying and centralizing the coordination, providing sufficient business for private firms, and avoiding labor disputes or supply shortages due to poor operation or improper management, the TPGDOT planned to contract one firm to operate the supply covering the whole area of a particular harbor and the whole items of water supply business.
The first part of Article 1 of the Commercial Harbor Law states: "The planning, construction, management, operation and safety of the commercial harbor must be in accordance with this Law." Article 20 provides: "The navigation of all types of work and transportation vessels and the operation of fishing vessels in the commercial harbor area are subject to approval from the commercial harbor's management agency...." Thus, the commercial harbor's management agency, after considering various factors including the planning, operation, management, and safety, shall decide ex officio whether to liberalize any related business, as well as the number of business operators that will be required. In addition, because the liberalization in question involved the management and safety of the commercial harbor and the operation of working vessels, it needed the approval from the commercial harbor's management agency in advance.
The Kaohsiung Harbor Bureau(KHB) implemented the water supply business liberalization with the TPGDOT's authorization. The KHB planned and the TPGDOT approved the method of liberalization and the number of business operators. If the KHB decided ex officio to contract with only one business operator, the Commission is met in a position to find such decision legally groundless. In addition, given actual factors such as the limited market scope, shortage of water supply space, and difficulty in fairly allocating and chartering the current [stock of] water supply vessels, the Commission did not find that the KHB's decision to contract only one operator through public bidding was unreasonable. However, in its draft statement for the public bidding, the KHB required that the bid tenderer be domiciled in Kaohsiung City. Such requirement was suspected of being discriminatory treatment. The FTC called the KHB's attention to this. In conclusion, the Fair Trade Commission will respect the competent agency’s authority, if the KHB's contracting of one operator through public bidding does not involve any unfair competition resulting from discriminatory treatment.
Summarized by Cheng, P'eng-chi
Supervised by Hsin, Chih-chun