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

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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.