Restructuring the Concept of "Abusing Superior Bargaining Position": A Comparative Study of Competition Law in Japan and Taiwan

郑博士与Wakui教授于2021年和2022年初分享了郑博士关于台湾在线平台美食熊猫最惠国案例的研讨会和他的其他学术意见，他们共同研究了与数字平台优越的讨价还价能力和滥用行为有关的监管和政策方向。这导致他们与韩国和德国的竞争研究人员就同一问题进行了进一步的讨论。在此基础上，Wakui在韩国进行了演讲，并与德国的Thomas Weck教授共同撰写了一本比较竞争书。程根据他在台湾、美国和欧盟的经验和知识帮助了写书的过程。同时，程将他的研究扩展到劳工保护问题，并研究了这些协议如何不合理地限制处于不利地位的劳工(工人)的工作选择，从而阻碍雇主之间的竞争。研究结果在奥西耶克大学举行的国际会议上公布，并发表在《纽约大学法律评论》上。这是Wakui一直致力于的领域，她与程分享了她对日本问题状况的了解，他们讨论了剩余的问题和潜在的研究课题。在日本，数字平台滥用优势讨价还价地位也受到了《提高数字平台透明度和公平性法案》的约束，郑Wakui密切审查了该法案的运作方式，并进行了比较法研究。这项联合研究的结果于2023年4月初在台湾公布。

Having learnt from Dr. Cheng’s seminar on the Taiwan online platform foodpanda's Most Favoured Nation (MFN) case and his other academic inputs shared in 2021 and early 2022, Cheng and Prof Wakui researched together the regulation and policy directions relating to digital platforms' superior bargaining power and abusive practices. These led to their even further discussion on the same issue together with Korean and German competition researchers. Based on these, Wakui gave a presentation in Korea and co-authored a comparative competition book together with Prof Thomas Weck from Germany. Cheng helped the book-writing process based on his experiences and knowledge in Taiwan, the US and EU.Meanwhile, Cheng expanded his research to labour protection issues and examined how the agreements unreasonably restrict the unprivileged labourers (workers) from job options and, therefore, hamper competition between employers. The results were presented at the international conference held by the University of Osijek and published in the NYCU Law Review. This is the area where Wakui had been working on and she shared her knowledge with Cheng as to the state of the issues in Japan and they discussed remaining issues and potential research subjects.In Japan, the digital platform's abuse of superior bargaining position has been also subject to the Act on Improving Transparency and Fairness of Digital Platforms, and Cheng and Wakui closely examined how the act is operated and conducted comparative law studies. The result of this joint research was presented in Taiwan in early April 2023.