1. First amendment
   A Bill for a Partial Amendment to the Fair Trade Law passed the third reading process at the Congress on 15 January 1999 and was promulgated by the President on 3 February to take effect on 5 February of the same year. A total of 20 articles were newly introduced or revised by the amendment. The 16 amended articles were Articles 10, 11, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 23, 35, 36, 37, 40, 41, 42, 46 and 49; the four newly introduced articles, Articles 23-1, 23-2, 23-3, and 23-4. The major points of that amendment are as follows:
   
   1. Abolished the requirement of public announcement of names of monopolistic enterprises and enterprises with a market share of one-fifth (former Articles 10[2] and 11[2]).
   2. Permitted administrative fines to be imposed without notice for violations of the Law, and raised the upper limits, and imposed lower limits, on such fines (Articles 40 and 41).
   3. Adopted the general principle of “administrative measures before judicial ones” in handling violations of the Law, while also raising the amounts of criminal fines (Articles 35, 36, and 37).
   4. Strengthened regulation of multi-level sales and provided adequate penalties for violations (Articles 23, 23-1, 23-2, 23-3, 23-4, and 42).
   5. Established the principle of the Fair Trade Law as a fundamental economic law, which aims at harmonizing competition policy and industrial policy (Article 46).
   6. Abolished provisions excluding daily necessities from the prohibition on resale price restrictions on (Article 18[1][proviso] and [2]).
      
2. Second amendment
   Article 9 was amended and promulgated on 26 April 2000. This amendment deletes the provisions of Article 9 concerning competent authorities at the provincial level in response to the passage of the Provisional Statute on the Adjustment of the Function, Business, and Organization of the Taiwan Provincial Government and the Law on Local Government Systems.
3. Third amendment
   In anticipation of the enforcement of the Administrative Procedure Law from 1 January 2001, the Fair Trade Commission, on 1 May 2000, submitted a Bill for a Partial Amendment to the Fair Trade Law to the Executive Yuan for ratification and submission to the Congress for deliberation. On 2 August 2000 the Cabinet completed its review of the bill and submitted it for deliberation to the Congress. Furthermore, in 2001, recognizing that Taiwan faces serious competitive pressure from the trend of economic globalization in the 21st Century and that competitive advantages enjoyed by large multinational enterprises and the change of the structural characteristics of Taiwan’s economy have made enterprise mergers and acquisitions a significant competitive advantage, the Fair Trade Commission drafted a Bill for Further Partial Amendments to the Fair Trade Law. This bill, drafted with an eye on trends in comparative laws concerning regulatory controls on enterprise combinations, was tailored to the following objectives: adapting to structural adjustments in industries and new requirements of Taiwan’s economic environment; maintaining and protecting market competition mechanisms; conforming to the consensus reached at a meeting of industry groups of the Economic Development Advisory Conference that government handling of enterprise combination cases should follow the principles of streamlining procedures, removing barriers, and offering appropriate incentives. On 31 August 2001, the Bill for Further Partial Amendments to the Fair Trade Law was submitted to the Cabinet, which forwarded it on 17 October 2001 for deliberation by the Congress. The bill passed the third reading process at the Congress on 15 January 2002 and was promulgated by the President on 6 February 2002, to take effect on 8 February 2002. A total of 15 articles were newly introduced or revised by the amendment. The 11 amended articles were Articles 7, 8, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 23-4, and 40; the four newly introduced articles, Articles 5-1, 11-1, 27-1, and 42-1. The primary points of the amendment are as follows:
   1. Abandons the original prior approval system for enterprise mergers in favor of an advance filing and opposition system, and allows the Commission to distinguish between financial institution enterprises and non-financial institution enterprises when announcing sales volume thresholds triggering filing requirements for enterprise combinations. If the Fair Trade Commission has not raised any opposition to a merger within 30 days after an enterprise files a merger report, the merger may lawfully proceed. (Article 11)
   2. Specifies types of mergers that will not weaken competitive mechanisms on the market and for which merging enterprises are not required to file merger reports with the Fair Trade Commission. (Article 11-1)
   3. Allows the central regulatory authority, the Fair Trade Comission, to attach conditions to decisions on mergers, and provides legal consequences for violation of such attached conditions. (Article 12)
   4. Moves into the Law itself a number of provisions of subordinate regulations that bear upon rights and interests of the regulated industries and individuals. (Articles 5-1, 7, 8, 42-1)
   5. Sets a time period for processing by the Commission of applications for exceptional approval of concerted action, specifies kinds of conditions that may be attached to approvals of concerted action, and provides for revocation thereof; specifies the scope of authorization of the Supervisory Regulations Governing Multi-Level Sales; sets forth principles for handling applications by parties to access materials or files and the basis for that authorization. (Articles 14, 15, 16, 17, 23-4, 27-1)

1. Article 13 of the Law Governing the Standards of Central Laws and Regulations provides that laws and regulations prescribed to take effect from the date of promulgation shall actually take force as of the third day from the date of promulgation. Article 49(2) of the amended Fair Trade Law provides that “Amendments to the Law shall take effect from the date of promulgation.” The amended articles of this Law were promulgated by presidential announcement on 3 February 1999 and took force on the third day subsequent thereto, i.e. 5 February 1999. If an unlawful act occurred or continued to exist on that day, the act would be liable to punishment under the amended articles. If an unlawful act were completed prior to that enforcement date, the applicability of the penalty provisions would be divided along the lines of criminal penalties and administrative penalties, as follows:
   1. Criminal penalties
   (1) Punishments under Article 35: If an act was completed prior to the enforcement date of the amendment, the post-amendment provisions apply in accordance with the principle of leniency regarding amended articles set forth in Article 2(1) of the Criminal Code; however, violations of Article 23 are liable to punishment under Article 35 of the pre-amendment Law.
   (2) Punishments under Article 36: If an enterprise that violated Article 19 prior to enforcement of the amended articles fails to cease its illegal conduct after being ordered by the Commission to do so, the pre-amendment provisions shall apply in keeping with the principle of leniency. On the other hand, an enterprise that violated Article 19 prior to enforcement of the amended articles and fails to rectify its illegal conduct after being ordered by the Commission to do so is not liable to criminal punishment, because the Law in force at the time of the act did not provide criminal penalties addressing the failure to “rectify” violations.
   (3) Punishments under Article 37: The pre-amendment provisions of Article 37 apply to violations of Article 22 that occurred prior to enforcement of the amended articles, in keeping with the principle of leniency.
   2. Administrative penalties
   (1) Penalties under Article 40: The pre-amendment articles apply, based on the principle of “substance governed by the old provisions, procedure by the new.
   (2) Penalties under Article 41 and 42: For acts completed prior to the enforcement date of the amended articles, the pre-amendment articles likewise apply.
2. If previous acts were completed prior to enforcement of the amended articles and subsequent acts occurred or continued in existence after enforcement, the post-amendment provisions apply to the subsequent acts.

The Fair Trade Law (hereinafter referred to as this Law) is enacted to maintain trading order, protect the interests of consumers, and ensure fair competition. Therefore, any entity whose actions will affect market order or market competition in the provision of goods or services, shall be subject to regulation by this Law; such an entity is referred to as an enterprise under this Law.

Relevant articles of law: Fair Trade Law, Article 2

Any un-registered commercial establishments, that engage in the provision of goods and services, shall be considered as enterprises as referred to in Article 2 of this Law, whether whose registration with the competent authorities is unnecessary in accordance with law (such as small-scale commercial establishments that are exempt from registration in accordance with Article 4 of the Commercial Registration Law), or whose registration is required by law but which fail to do so.

Relevant articles of law: Fair Trade Law, Article 2

According to Article 2 of the Enforcement Rules to the Fair Trade Law, the term ˇ§trade associationˇ¨ in Article 2(1)(iii) of the Law refers to: industry associations and chambers of industry organized under the Industrial Association Law; commercial associations, federations of commercial associations, exporter associations, and federations of exporter associations, and chambers of commerce organized under the Commercial Association Law; and also to other professional associations organized under the provisions of other relevant laws and regulations, such as architects associations, bar associations, and CPA associations organized in accordance with the Architects Law, the Lawyers Law, and the Certified Public Accountants Law.

Relevant articles of law: Fair Trade Law, Article 2; Enforcement Rules to the Fair Trade Law, Article 2

Administrative agencies are organs that act externally on behalf of the state or of public juristic persons such as local autonomous organizations. Within its scope of authority, such an agency may act in its own name on behalf of the juristic person of which it is part. It is considered an entity capable of adopting independent action. Whether an administrative agency is considered an enterprise as referred to in Article 2 of this Law depends on whether the agency at issue is exercising public powers or engaging in private economic activity:

1. When an administrative agency is exercising public powers or taking actions under a particular public law as a national administrative entity rather than providing goods and services and engaging in trade, such acts are inconsistent with this Lawˇ¦s defining criteria for an enterprise. In this context, the agency is not considered an ˇ§enterpriseˇ¨ as referred to in Article 2.
2. However, when an administrative agency acting in an independent capacity engages in ordinary trading or economic activity under a particular private law, it is governed by the provisions of this Law just like any ordinary privately operated enterprise. It shall be interpreted in this way so as to ensure fair trade and competitive opportunity for its trading counterparts and competitors.

Relevant articles of law: Fair Trade Law, Article 2

When an administrative agency, in its private capacity, provides goods or services of market value as part of its operations or as one of its objectives, the demand resulting from such actions, regardless of whether goods or services have been provided at the time of demand, shall be subject to regulation by the Law. When an administrative agency provides goods or services for a fee, the demand resulting from such actions, regardless of whether goods or services have been provided at the time of demand, shall also be subject to regulation by this Law.
ˇ@ When an administrative agency commissions a private or other organization to provide goods or services of market value, in its private capacity, as part of its operation or as one of its objectives, the demand resulting from such actions, regardless of whether goods or services have been provided at the time of demand, shall be subject to regulation by this Law. The demand resulting from the provision of goods or services for a fee, regardless of whether goods or services have been provided at the time of demand, shall also be subject to regulation by this Law. The division of duties worked out between the Fair Trade Commission and the Public Construction Commission following the implementation of the Government Procurement Law (on 27 May 1999) is as follows:

1. The applicability of law and the division of duties regarding government procurement disputes occurring before and after implementation of the Government Procurement Law:
   1. Disputes involving acts that occurred prior to the implementation of the Government Procurement Law and that have a bearing on the competitive order of the marketplace are to be handled under the Fair Trade Law.
   2. Disputes involving acts that spanned the implementation of the Government Procurement Law and that have a bearing on competitive order of the marketplace are to be resolved by the parties involved through the channels
      set forth in the Government Procurement Law; provided, acts that already constituted violations of the Fair Trade Law prior to the implementation of the Government Procurement Law, the Fair Trade Commission may still impose punishment under the Fair Trade Law. 3. Disputes involving acts that occurred after the implementation of the Government Procurement Law and that have a bearing on competitive order of the marketplace are to be resolved by the parties involved through the channels set forth in the Government Procurement Law.
2. Government procurement disputes occurring after the implementation of the Government Procurement Law but involving violations of competition laws and regulations:
   
   1. Where acts related to government procurement have a bearing on competitive order, if the Government Procurement Law has relevant provisions, the cases are to be handled by the competent authority of that law or by the relevant authorized agencies pursuant to the provisions of that law.
      
   2. In government-planned or authorized and agency-administered construction projects relating to transportation, energy, environmental protection, or tourism where the competent authorities for the target industry have approved the investment and construction by the private sector, the procedures for selecting the private concerns to invest are governed by the Government Procurement Law, except where otherwise provided by law.
      
   3. Although the Government Procurement Law is silent on anti-competitive acts between bid-winning enterprises and their subcontractors, cases of this kind that touch upon provisions of the Fair Trade Law are handled by the Fair Trade Commission under that Law.