The Legitimacy on Antitrust Conduct in Professional Baseball:Assurance of Rights of Taiwan Professional Baseball Players Also Visited

• Main Authors: Yang-Pin Lin, 林楊斌
• Other Authors: Spenser Y. Hor
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2005
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/40017398557819845120

碩士 === 中國文化大學 === 法律學研究所 === 93 === The strong commercialization of professional sports has made the beginning processes to sell tickets to the audiences much more smoothly. Those participating enterprises joining professional sports will not only focus upon the commercial sale promotion, but try to keep all costs and expenses as low as possibly can. For this reason, during the development period of professional baseball in Taiwan, alliances and individual baseball group tries to cut the expenditures to the lowest by bringing down the salary of players and reducing their welfares. Furthermore, the sports of baseball’s beginning development period have yet to be systematized, which is under strong control by man. This cultivates the monopolized conduct involving with the baseball transactions and disputes mechanism by and among the alliances, baseball groups and individual players under certain circumstances. If those conducts in violation of antitrust act could not be effectively regulated, not only will the rights of players be directly infringed, but also hinder the development of the professional sport of baseball. Referring to the possible antirust violation during the preliminary developmental stage of the professional sport of baseball and after the introduction of Chapter One, the author provides the perspectives in Chapter Two regarding the formation and progress of professional baseball in the U.S. and Japan. In Chapter Three, the relation of the league, baseball teams and players under the law of Taiwan has been examined and characterized as and for the foundation to further analyze and resolve relevant problems facing ahead. In Chapters Four and Five, this thesis further discusses the monopolizing behaviors and the legitimacy over these related activities under Taiwan law. The author concludes that these antitrust violations have commonly occurred in the developmental stage of other countries as well when the individual players have been oppressed by the baseball groups. However, while we seek to break through in the professional sports of baseball using fair trade law and considering the nature of promoting the public interest of physical training, it seems inappropriate to apply the entire antitrust provisions on the development of professional baseball. While unfair competition is discussed along with the monopoly of the alliances and baseball group, difference levels of degrees of antitrust provisions shall be applicable for the purposes of maintaining the fair market competition in addition to the public goods of physical training on a case-by-case basis. Above all, seeking to overturn the activities of antitrust involving in professional baseball is to ensure the protection of players’ rights and to attain equality status by and between management (baseball groups) and labor (players). In other words, ensuring the rights of players can utilize the practice/employ of antitrust provisions as a mean, while achieving the end of protection of the rights of professional baseball players. Moreover, although the players have the title of being a labor in Taiwan, due to the specialities of their work, the competent authority, Council of Labor Affairs, Executive Yuan, has stated by a letter interpretation that the Labor Standard Law is not applicable to the baseball players. To further, in Chapter Six the author discusses the mission and organization of one baseball labor union, and expects that the aforesaid baseball labor union can effectively penetrate into the professional baseball, and get protection for the rights of baseball players. In order to break through the antitrust violation within our professional sports in Taiwan, with the invoking of fair trade law, labor union law and pertinent labor laws and regulations, the existing system of professional baseball needs to be corrected and the mission of players union be empowered with functionality, which will then be able to reform the antitrust violation in the professional sports degree by degree. In Chapter Seven, the author brings up certain suggestions on how to break through the current norms; including but not limited to, the reformation of the present arbitration system of alliances; players’ labor retirement fund system, and urges for the design of a suitable retirement fund system for the professional players in conjunction with the prevailing Taiwan Labor Pension Act.