Taiwan FTC fines two major karaoke operators TWD9 million over Fair Trade Act violation

Taiwan Fair Trade Commission (FTC) imposed a fine on Taiwan’s two largest karaoke operators, Cashbox Partyworld Co., Ltd. (“Cashbox”) and Holiday Entertainment Co., Ltd. (“Holiday”) in the respective amount of TWD5 million and TWD4 million on the ground that the two operators are engaged in the conduct of merger without submitting a merger filing under the Fair Trade Act, for which the two operators instituted an administrative action to fight the fine penalty, while the Supreme Administrative Court held the FTC’s sanction not improper and decided on this action against the two operators with a final judgment.  

According to the FTC’s investigation, the core business of both Cashbox and Holiday in regard to their respective headquarter office lease, business operation, planning, and management is all jointly conducted and directed.  Moreover, the employees of the two operators’ purchasing department are all work in Holiday’s company office, and one employee of that department is responsible for purchasing operation equipment and products of the two operators.  

The two operators’ intranet and telephone network are also connected for communications of retail stores business and resource sharing.  The foregoing makes it clear that the two companies operate their business jointly and thus fall into the circumstances of merger as defined by the Fair Trade Act.  Therefore, the two operators should pay administrative fine for not completing the required filing.　(September 2016)

/CCS