A Study on Cartel's Issues Related to Information Exchanges—with Particular Reference to the US Antitrust Law and EU Competition Law

• Main Authors: Hung, Meng-Han, 洪孟韓
• Other Authors: Ho, Ji-Ming
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2014
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/w4npcp

碩士 === 國立臺北大學 === 法律學系一般生組 === 103 === Businesses need information to assess the market conditions and to adopt strategies that suitable for the market. Market information including prices, production, costs…etc, while all kinds of market information always impact on decisions of prices. Therefore, the concept of “price information” of the Chinese title of this thesis includes not only price but all kinds of market information. In order to obtain the market information, businesses may gather by themselves or through marketing researches, also, they may exchange information with their competing businesses. Recently, the ways of information exchanges become more multiplex, and the frequency of information exchanges get higher. There is a considerable number of both foreign cases and domestic cases that concerning information exchanges. To make mention of information exchanges, one should notice that, firstly, this kind of business behavior falls within the cartel’s regulations. Secondly, there are two threads of the discussion of information exchanges. Thread one is concerning about how businesses reach an agreement or concerted action, this thread focusing on whether exchange of information could be a circumstantial evidence of cartels. Thread two is concerning about the content of such an agreement, this thread focusing on whether businesses exchange information with anticompetitive intent or result in anticompetitive effects. While, the competition law does not including meticulous regulations on information exchanges, the objective of this thesis is to introduce the US and the EU cases about information exchanges, also the guidelines released by FTC/DOJ and EU commission to domestic enforcement. The chapter 1 of this thesis concerning about the research motive, objective and methods. The chapter 2 concerning about the regulation of Cartel of the fair trade act in Taiwan. In the chapter 3, this thesis introduces the meaning and the competitive assessment of information exchanges. The chapter 4 introduces the regulations of information exchanges under the US antitrust law, including several relevant federal cases and the FTC/DOJ’s guidelines. The chapter 5 introduces the regulations of information exchanges under the EU competition law, including several relevant EU cases and the commission’s guidelines. In the chapter 6, this thesis introduces and analyzes relevant decisions and judgments of the FTC and administrative court in Taiwan. Finally, the chapter 7 proposes the comprehensive conclusions for this thesis and gives suggestion for domestic enforcement.