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

郑博士于2021年和2022年初就台湾网络平台foodpanda的最惠国待遇案举办研讨会，并分享了他的其他学术意见，郑教授和Wakui教授共同研究了与数字平台优越议价能力和滥用行为相关的监管和政策方向。因此，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。以此为基础，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的书。程先生根据他在台湾、美国和欧盟的经验和知识，帮助撰写了这本书。与此同时，他将研究范围扩展到劳动保护问题，考察了协议如何不合理地限制了弱势劳动者（工人）的就业选择，从而阻碍了雇主之间的竞争。研究结果在奥西耶克大学举行的国际会议上发表，并发表在《纽约大学法律评论》上。这是Wakui一直在研究的领域，她与Cheng分享了她对日本问题现状的了解，并讨论了剩余的问题和潜在的研究课题。在日本，数字平台滥用优势议价地位的行为也受到了《提高数字平台透明度和公平性法案》的约束，Cheng和Wakui仔细研究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.