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### Viewing cable 04TAIPEI3961, Bilateral Consultations on Competition Law and Antitrust Seminar

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Reference ID | Created | Released | Classification | Origin
--- | --- | --- | --- | ---
04TAIPEI3961 | 2004-12-14 00:47 | 2011-08-23 00:00 | UNCLASSIFIED | American Institute Taiwan, Taipei

`

    This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

` `

    UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 TAIPEI 003961

    SIPDIS

    STATE PASS TO AIT/W, DOJ, AND USTR

    STATE FOR EAP/RSP/TC

    DOJ FOR DELRAHIM

    USTR FOR KI/FREEMAN

    E.O. 12958: N/A
    TAGS: KIPR ECON ETRD TW
    SUBJECT: Bilateral Consultations on Competition Law and Antitrust Seminar

    Summary
    -------
    ¶1.  (U) In order to share information and open channels for
    future cooperation on antitrust issues, AIT and the US
    Department of Justice met with officials from the Taiwan
    Fair Trade Commission (TFTC) in Taipei, November 15-16.  DOJ
    and TFTC officials compared antitrust developments in the US
    and Taiwan and committed to establish an intellectual
    property rights (IPR) and competition working group under
    the auspices of AIT and TECRO.  In a separate session, which
    included private US attorneys as well as other Taiwan
    agencies and academics, the two sides gave presentations on
    the importance of antitrust enforcement to economic
    development. DOJ also participated in a competition law
    seminar hosted by the US-Taiwan Business Council and the
    Taiwan Semiconductor Industry Association (TSIA). End
    Summary.

    DOJ Focuses on Increasing Penalties While Providing Amnesty
    --------------------------------------------- --------------
    ¶2.  (U) On November 15, 2004 Deputy Assistant Attorney
    General Makan Delrahim, Special Counsel Stuart Chemtob, and
    DOJ Attorney Andrew Finch met with TFTC representatives for
    3 hours of consultations at TFTC headquarters.  The U.S.
    presentation focused on a dual approach of simultaneously
    increasing penalties for cartel behavior and the benefits of
    the amnesty program. DOJ reported that the US has increased
    the maximum penalty from 3 years in jail to 10 years in jail
    and the maximum criminal fine from US$10 million to US$100
    million. The amnesty program, which offers amnesty to the
    first company from a cartel that comes forward with
    information, now also provides for reduced civil penalties
    for amnesty recipients. The amnesty program is the single
    most effective tool for breaking up cartels.  Mr. Delrahim
    also stressed that an effective antitrust policy should not
    discriminate based upon nationality.  He cited several
    examples of US companies investigated by DOJ for
    anticompetitive practices against foreign firms.

    Taiwan Still Developing its Antitrust Enforcement Program
    --------------------------------------------- ------------
    ¶3.  (U) Taiwan is also exploring an amnesty program and
    expressed interest in the lessons learned from the DOJ, but
    TFTC Chairman Hwang Tzong-Leh noted that TFTC does not share
    the US DOJ's ability to prosecute antitrust violators.  This
    limits TFTC's ability to put pressure on and negotiate deals
    with violators.  Taiwan's amnesty law is still being
    discussed in the legislature. TFTC Vice Chairman Chen Chi-
    yuan stated that TFTC's focus over the next three years
    would be examination of enforcement procedures and
    legislation in order to create a consistent enforcement
    policy. He pointed out that this is necessary because Taiwan
    has a very short antitrust law history compared to the US.
    Chairman Chen also mentioned that Taiwan prefers to educate
    the business community rather than regulate them. He
    particularly stressed that dissemination of information in
    forums such as seminars are as important as enforcement
    actions.

    ¶4.  (U) The two groups also discussed their different
    procedures for evaluating mergers.  In 2002 Taiwan amended
    the requirement that two firms intending to merge submit a
    pre-merger application. Now, they require a pre-merger
    notification, meaning that if TFTC does not request more
    information within 30 days, the merger would be
    automatically approved.  TFTC's policy also uses market
    share as a benchmark for determining which merger
    applications will require more requests for information.
    When Chemtob questioned this policy, TFTC responded that
    other measures such as assets and sales volume are absolute
    numbers and do not reflect the relative nature of
    monopolies.  TFTC prefers flexible standards that promote
    competition. Chemtob stated DOJ also prefers flexible
    standards that promote competition, but does not consider
    market share to be the primary determiner of anticompetitive
    practice. TFTC asked DOJ whether it placed a greater
    priority on a short time frame for evaluating merger
    applications in order to improve efficiency or on accuracy
    of the data in order to catch more offenders. They also
    asked whether DOJ used a large database of information to
    evaluate which cases constituted compliance problems.  DOJ
    responded that it evaluates mergers on a case-by-case basis.
    Out of 1454 merger notifications in FY 2004, it had to
    scrutinize only about 75 cases, and only in 15 cases (one
    percent) did they issue a second request for information.

    Agreement to Establish IPR and Competition Working Group
    --------------------------------------------- -----------
    ¶5.  (U) Mr. Delrahim proposed establishing an intellectual
    property and competition working group with the TFTC in
    order to help it distinguish IPR rights from anti-
    competitive practices, based on sound economic policy.  He
    said that DOJ has already established working groups with
    the Japan Fair Trade Commission (JFTC) and the Korea Fair
    Trade Commission (KFTC).  Delrahim proposed establishing a
    similar dialogue with Taiwan to include issues such as
    standard setting and unilateral refusals for licensing.  He
    suggested that the working group include both economists and
    attorneys.  Chemtob said the  US Federal Trade Commission
    would participate in the working group.  Vice Chairman Chen
    agreed  that a working group would be an important venue to
    exchange ideas in the IP and competition area and to receive
    advice from DOJ.  He stated that the International
    Competition Network (ICN) was also a good forum to discuss
    issues such as these, as the US and Taiwan are both members.

    Seminars Highlight Need for Antitrust Education in Taiwan
    --------------------------------------------- -----------
    ¶6.  (U) The afternoon session on November 15 was open to
    officials from several Taiwan ministries as well as
    professors and students from local Universities.  DAAG
    Delrahim spoke about the antitrust enforcement priorities in
    the United States, citing cartels as the highest priority,
    followed by mergers, and lastly, monopolistic behavior.  He
    stressed the importance of international cooperation in
    anti-cartel enforcement and praised the establishment of the
    ICN and intellectual property and competition working groups
    to promote convergence on policy and enforcement.  The
    audience asked why Taiwan, which had much smaller companies
    than the US, should be worried about antitrust issues.  Mr.
    Delrahim explained that antitrust investigation should be
    primarily concerned with preserving the competitive
    environment, not the size or even the market share of the
    firms involved.

    ¶7.  (U) Commissioner Yu said that the Taiwan Fair Trade Law
    distinguishes anti-trust issues, such as mergers and
    monopolies, from unfair competition issues, such as false
    advertising, illegal multilevel sales, fraud, and
    counterfeiting.  In the last 12 years Taiwan has handed out
    over NT$1.3 billion in fines and has punished over 3,666
    companies.  He reiterated the TFTC view that punishment
    should not be the primary tool.  Taiwan instead favors
    education, through universities, mass media, and information
    dissemination to the companies so that they can effectively
    self-regulate.

    ¶8.  (U) The US-Taiwan Business Council and TSIA organized
    presentations to industry representatives November 16 in
    Hsinchu. The key points discussed included cooperation
    between governments on investigations, which DOJ praised,
    and the inconsistency of penalties and time frame for
    investigations, which private firms complained about.  The
    private attorneys also raised questions about how patent
    pools (groups of companies combining large numbers of
    related patents for licensing arrangements) were hindering
    smaller firms from innovating and, conversely, how patent
    "trolls" (companies who buy up large numbers of patents
    without intending to market them and then sue when another
    company markets a product, allegedly based on such patents)
    were hindering innovation by larger firms.  In the last
    session, companies asked how they could protect themselves
    from antitrust suits. Finch stressed that an effective
    compliance program must communicate the severity of possible
    penalties for anti-competitive activity, before it starts to
    occur.

    Conclusion
    -------
    ¶9. (U) This conference built on the relationship established
    by last year's meetings in Washington.  TFTC appreciated the
    opportunity to personally discuss the development of
    Taiwan's enforcement program with DOJ.  More importantly,
    they were able to establish a channel for regular
    communication between Taiwan and US officials. The public
    seminars directly addressed TFTC's focus of educating firms
    about antitrust laws rather than regulating them.
    Participants agreed that this kind of education program
    would help prevent compliance problems in the future and
    requested more education programs on this relatively new
    area of Taiwan law.
    Paal

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