December 2022
Aaron Chen and Sally Yang
The he initial draft of the White Paper on Competition Policy in the Digital Economy (hereinafter, the “White Paper”) was posted by the Taiwan Fair Trade Commission (hereinafter, the “TFTC”) on the TFTC’s website on March 2, 2022 to solicit public opinions. After collecting public opinions, the TFTC officially announced the White Paper to the public on December 20, 2022[1].
The newly added content in the finalized White Paper is summarized as follows:
Competition issues concerning the digital economy
- The TFTC emphasized that its policy is to stay away from implementing significant “ex ante” regulations, unlike those in the EU Digital Markets Act and other regulations.
- False advertisement on the internet: The “Online Advertising and Influencers Marketing” rules were introduced. If the influencer or its company is an advertiser, they will be held administratively liable for false advertisements; even if the influencer is not deemed as an advertiser, he or she may still assume civil liability for any service opinions, evaluations, experiences, etc. made through videos or tweets that meet the scope of the endorsement advertisement.
- Digital advertising revenue sharing and news charges: The Executive Yuan established the cross-agency “Domestic Industry and Large-scale Digital Platform Joint Development and Coordination Group”, which is made up of the Ministry of Digital Development, the National Communication Commission, the Ministry of Culture, and the TFTC. The assistance the TFTC stated that it could provide include allowing domestic enterprises to apply for an exemption from concerted action before engaging in joint negotiations, and conducting an investigation during the negotiations into whether the large-scale digital platform has been engaging in abuse of market position that restrict competition via refusing or delaying the negotiation process.
Proposed direction for amending the current laws and regulations
- The White Paper stated that the current TFTC handling principles relating to market definition will be re-examined.
- Increase the power to conduct investigations of the relevant industries in general cases through amending the law to strengthen the market investigation authority of the TFTC.
- Establish handling rules for the digital economy after having accumulated sufficient enforcement experience.
- Review and revise the current TFTC handling principles regarding advertisements, and include influencer marketing advertisements into the handling principles for online advertising.
The remainder of the finalized White Paper differs very little from its initial draft. Please refer to our firm’s legal news in March 2022 “The TFTC Released the Initial Draft of the White Paper on Competition Policy in the Digital Economy to Solicit Public Opinions”.
[1] The TFTC’s White Paper can be downloaded at: https://www.ftc.gov.tw/internet/main/doc/docDetail.aspx?uid=126&docid=17345
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