Page 30 - FAIR TRADE COMMISSION 2023 ANNUAL REPORT

Fair Trade Commission Annual Report 2023
3.Relaxing Merger Controls to Alleviate Burdens
(1) Improving merger review to upgrade efficiency
Economic progress and technological innovation change industrial structures and development. Horizontal acquisitions, cross-industry mergers and cross-border mergers thus become important strategies for enterprises to consolidate resources to increase their competitiveness. To prevent business mergers from leading to excessive market concentration and weakening or restraining competition, the Commission handles every merger filing with caution.
In 2023, the Commission received 42 merger filings and closed 46 cases (including unclosed cases from the previous year). 31 mergers were not prohibited, and 13 mergers did not belong to the Commission’s jurisdiction. One of the two remaining mergers did not require filing and review of the other was suspended due to incomplete documentation. Important merger cases that the Commission reviewed in 2023 included the merger of retail industry leader Uni-President Enterprises Corp. with Presicarre Corp., the merger of Far EasTone Telecom with Asia Pacific Telecom, and the merger of Taiwan Mobile with Taiwan Star Telecom.
Key revisions made to the Merger Types to Which Paragraph 1 of Article 11 of the Fair Trade Act Does Not Apply and the Fair Trade Commission Disposal Directions (Guidelines) on Handling Merger Filings announced in 2023
Addition of merger types that did not require filing
Addition of the following situations that make merger filing with the Commission unnecessary:
1.An enterprise merging with another enterprise which it already controlled or was
controlled by or where an affiliation already exists between the two enterprises 2.An enterprise merging with another enterprise affiliated to the same controlling
enterprise
3.An enterprise assigning third party voting shares in its holding or the entire or
part of the capital to another enterprise it controls or is controlled by or where an
affiliation exists between the two enterprises
4.An enterprise assigning third party voting shares in its holding or the entire or
part of the capital to another enterprise where both enterprises are controlled by
the same enterprise
5.Foreign enterprises merging to set up or manage a joint venture outside the
territory of the ROC and the joint venture will not engage in business activities within the territory of the ROC
Expansion of merger types to which the simplified procedure applies
The simplified procedure may apply to three merger types, namely, the amount involved in the merger transaction being less than 2.5 billion dollars, the sales of each merging party in the country being less than 200 million dollars and the acquired enterprise not doing business in the country, because the impact on competition in the relevant local market is smaller.
28