A Study on the Scope of Overall Economic Benefit in the Merger Control under the Fair Trade Act

• Main Authors: YANG, HUNG-HSIANG, 楊閎翔
• Other Authors: 林廷機
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2019
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/89n947

碩士 === 逢甲大學 === 財經法律研究所 === 107 === According to Fair Trade Act 2017 (article13-1), the competent authority may not prohibit any of mergers filed if the overall economic benefit of the merger outweighs the disadvantages resulted from competition restraint. To avoid competition restraint and protect the market mechanism, the authority must evaluate the overall economic benefit of the merger and the disadvantages. If the overall economic benefit of the merger outweighs the disadvantages, the authority should approve the mergers filed by law. However, what is the specific dentition of overall economic benefit and the disadvantages resulted from competition restraint? Fair Trade Commission’s examination of the mergers focuses on the substantive examination of the possible effect of market competition to prevent the damage on market mechanism after the merger, ensure an efficient competition environment and enhance economic efficiency. Nowadays, enormous corporate capital has an increasing effect on society. Besides market competition efficiency, mergers also profoundly impact national security, environmental protection, labor protection, and other public interests. Under the current merger regulation in our country, the authority is not allowed to consider issues besides market competition such as freedom of expression, environmental protection, national defense, national security, education, underprivileged minority protection, diplomacy, and culture while examining a merger. Practically, Fair Trade Commission has already taken issues in addition to market competition into consideration during the examination. Therefore, the scope of work is not clear. Based on the argument above, this thesis contains some suggestions to the future amendment for the current practical dilemma of the examination of mergers.