To maintain domestic trading order and protect consumers’ interests, governments have enacted fair competition laws as a means to ensure fair and free competition, thereby achieving economic prosperity. In general, the scope of corporate competition includes price, quality, quantity, and service, from which enterprises create value for consumers. If the products provided by enterprises bear false and misleading representations that lead consumers to making poor trading decisions potentially disrupting market discipline, competent authorities in various countries may investigate and impose sanctions on the enterprises in accordance with the fair competition laws in place.

The IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook 2021 compared the competitiveness of 64 major economies worldwide based on various criteria. One sub-criterion under the Government Efficiency - Business Legislation category was Competition Legislation, which ranked economies based on the effectiveness of their fair competition laws at prohibiting unfair competition. Finland, a Nordic country with sound economic policies, came first with an average score of 8.42 for this sub-criterion. The second through fourth places were also taken by European countries, namely Denmark, Sweden, and the Netherlands. Economies ranked fifth through tenth are shown in the chart above.

In Taiwan, fair competition law is referred to as the Fair Trade Act. Faced with global competition, Taiwan has been actively formulating fair competition regulations that keep pace with the times to ensure that enterprises are entitled to fair trade rights in an extremely challenging business environment. As a result, Taiwan ranked 17th globally in “Competition Legislation” this year, moving up 12 spots from 2019 (29th) and 10 spots from 2020 (27th); in the Asia-Pacific region, Taiwan ranked fourth, finishing behind only Singapore (9th), Japan (11th), and Hong Kong (16th). Other major Asia-Pacific economies were ranked as follows: China (27th), Malaysia (34th), Indonesia (36th), South Korea (41st), Thailand (46th), and the Philippines (51st). This shows the relative strength of Taiwan’s Fair Trade Act at providing a fair environment for business competition.