Lee and Li Named Elite Firm
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Draft of Amendments to Fair Trade Act
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Lee and Li has just been named by the Global Competition Review (GCR) as one of the elite firms in Taiwan for outstanding performance in the competition law practice. For the first time the GCR conducted a country survey on Taiwan's competition law market (the ranking is categorized as two tiers: elite and highly recommended), and the full report will be published in its May 2013 Issue. But even before receiving this honor, Lee and Li has been singled out year after year as one of the leading competition law firms in the world (GCR 100) during 2002~2007 (Taiwan has been excluded from the survey since 2008). The international journal's recognition affirms Lee and Li's unrivaled capacity for handling competition cases.
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By way of update, please note in December 2012, the Executive Yuan approved the draft of amendments to the Taiwan Fair Trade Act ("FTA"), which may be the most sweeping reform since the FTA came into effect in 1992. The draft amendments cover various topics from merger control, cartel enforcement, to restrictive competition and unfair competition.
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On the merger control front, the maximum merger review period will be extended from 60 days to 90 days. Meanwhile, the filing threshold will be revised from the dual thresholds (market share and turnover) to the single turnover threshold.
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The draft amendments introduce dawn raid and seizure as two new enforcement tools since the Taiwan Fair Trade Commission ("FTC") needs more forceful investigative power to detect cartels. Structure-wise, competition offences – cartel offence, abuse of dominance, unfair competition and so on – are more clearly categorized in the draft amendments and the fines and corrective measures applicable to each type of offense are differentiated. Also, the statutory limitation on penalties will be extended to five years; currently it is three. Another change that may directly affect an enterprise's day-to-day operations is that resale price maintenance offences will move from per se illegal to the "rule of reason" standard.
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Furthermore, the FTC proposes adding a clause that allows it to abort an investigation if the business ceases the illegal conduct and undertakes corrective measures. All those changes are expected to overhaul the FTA, which means once the draft amendments are passed, a virtually new competition law will emerge.
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As of now, the draft is still pending the Legislative Yuan's review and the legislators' agenda is unknown to the public. We will monitor the legislation process and keep our clients informed of the latest developments.
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If you have any further inquiry, please do not hesitate to contact us.
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