Taiwan’s Fair Trade Commission fines Telecommunication Operators for Violating Combination Remedies
In January of 2024, Taiwan’s Fair Trade Commission (the “TFTCâ€) ruled that TFN Media Co., Ltd. (“TFNâ€) and kbro Inc. (“kbroâ€) had violated the remedies imposed in the TFTC’s 2010 approval of the companies’ combination.
In 2010, TFN acquired kbro (along with the 12 cable system operators under the kbro Group) and submitted a combination filing to the TFTC. However, since TFN was an affiliate of Taiwan Mobile Co., Ltd. (“Taiwan Mobileâ€), one of Taiwan’s leading telecommunication companies, which also indirectly controlled 7 cable system operators, the TFTC imposed 13 conditions in its approval of the combination, including that the 12 cable system operators under the kbro Group could not jointly operate with the other cable system operators controlled by Taiwan Mobile and, when serving as a distributor of TV channels, could not jointly offer TV channels with other distributors controlled by Taiwan Mobile.
However, in 2019, the TFTC received reports that the 12 cable system operators under the kbro Group had violated the remedies described above. After conducting an investigation, the TFTC decided to levy a fine of NT$ 50,000,000 (approximately US$ 1,700,000) on TFN and kbro (along with the 12 cable TV operators under the kbro Group), respectively, in accordance with Article 39 of Taiwan’s Fair Trade Act. This marked the largest fines ever levied by the TFTC for a violation of combination remedies.
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This publication is intended to highlight selected legal developments and not to be comprehensive nor to provide legal advice. If you have any questions on issues reported here or if you have any issues you would like to see covered in future editions, please contact the editors:
Dannie Liu, at +886-2-8725-6605,
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Fran Wang, at +886-2-8725-6607,
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