| Summary: | 碩士 === 淡江大學 === 公共行政學系公共政策碩士班 === 91 === Due to the rather discretionary disposition inherent in the interpretation of antitrust law, antitrust enforcement agencies around the world face similar enforcement problems concerning how to design, within their authorities conferred by law, enforcement mechanisms that could appropriately deter anticompetitive activities. The Antitrust Division of Department of Justice in the United States, for example, had adopted many informal measures such as publishing guideline, issuing business review letter and employing consent decree to release its policy information to antitrust stakeholders. Among all relevant informal measures, consent decree is the only mechanism that is ex post in nature and had been frequently used by Antitrust Division to resolve antitrust disputes because it is more efficient than litigation to enforce antitrust law. However, the role of Antitrust Division has shifted over time from originally being a “prosecutor” to “regulator”; it has been empowered today to make antitrust policy if under its discretion it is necessary to accomplish government’s view toward market competition. With respect to the importance for the growth of antitrust law, consent decree has in several occasions out weighed antitrust courts’ judgments. Against this backdrop, I introduce and evaluate in this thesis the experience of the application of consent decree to resolve antitrust disputes in U.S. antitrust history. I hope to derive from some feasible suggestions to the Fair Trade Commission of Taiwan in enforcing the Fair Trade Law and in designing competition policies. In particular, I hope the conclusions made in this thesis could benefit the Commission in constructing a more sensible guideline for establishing administrative settlement agreement with potential Fair Trade Law violators.
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