TAIWAN Law and Practice Contributed by: Stephen Wu, Yvonne Hsieh, Wei-Han Wu and Erica Chiu, Lee and Li, Attorneys-at-Law
4.6 Non-Competition Issues Whether the TFTC will take any non-competition issues into account as part of the review pro - cess is unclear, since no case precedent is avail - able. The TFTA or relevant regulation is silent on whether the consideration of these non-compe - tition issues should be permitted. The ruling for foreign direct investments in Tai - wan is separate from the merger control regime. In principle, an investment into Taiwan is sub - ject to the prior approval of the Department of Investment Review of the Ministry of Economic Affairs. In Taiwan, there are no rules for foreign subsidies; please refer to 9.1 Legislation and Filing Requirements for details. 4.7 Special Consideration for Joint Ventures There are no special considerations in the sub - stantive review of joint ventures; however, pos - sible co-ordination issues between joint venture parents will be examined by the TFTC. 5. Decision: Prohibitions and Remedies 5.1 Authorities’ Ability to Prohibit or Interfere With Transactions The TFTC has the ability to prohibit or other - wise interfere with a transaction; it exercises this power by issuing a binding decision at the end of the regulatory process. Such decision will gener - ally come under one of the following categories:
• the possibility for the market power to be abused by participating parties in the relevant market; • the possibility of increasing competitors’ cost; • the possibility of concerted actions occurring as a result of the combination; and • other factors likely to lead to market foreclo - sure. When reviewing conglomerate combinations, the following factors may be considered by the TFTC to determine whether potential competi - tion exists between the parties to a conglomer - ate combination: • the possibility of a change of regulations and its impact on the participating parties’ cross- industry operations; • the possibility of technological improve - ment enabling engagement in cross-industry operations by the participating parties; • whether any of the participating parties originally has the intention to develop cross- industry operations; and • other factors likely to have an impact on mar - ket competition. If significant potential competition is deemed likely in a conglomerate combination, further analysis of the factors concerning anti-compe - tition under a horizontal or vertical combination is required. 4.5 Economic Efficiencies While the TFTC will certainly consider economic efficiencies when determining whether the pro - posed transaction will benefit the economy over - all, there is no case precedent on how the TFTC weighs this factor.
• clearance without condition; • clearance with conditions; and • a prohibition on the combination.
In a decision to prohibit a combination, the TFTC will state its reasons regarding the anti-competi -
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