An antitrust seminar: "Value Driven Mergers in the Digital Age", held by Brain Trust International Law Firm, has been reported by the Liberty Times.

The Taiwan Law and Technology Association and Brain Trust International Law Firm jointly held an antitrust seminar: "Value Driven Mergers in the Digital Age:  How to Make a Win-Win for Taiwan" on November 19th, 2024. This seminar discussed issues regarding how to promote positive mergers and acquisitions in the digital economy era from the economic and legal aspects.

Efficiency and innovation, through solutions to reduce possible negative effects, probably may make the benefits of mergers and acquisitions outweigh the disadvantages occurred.

This seminar invited experts and scholars from legal and economic areas. It is an honor of Brain Trust International Law Firm to invite Dr. Tsai Ming-Cheng, former Justice of the Taiwan Constitutional Court, Marc Rysman, professor of economics at Boston University, Tsai Hui-An, former commissioner of the Taiwan Fair Trade Commission, Hung Ou Yang, Managing Partner of Brain Trust International Law Firm, and other distinguished speakers to join this fantastic event.  As Uber's recent merge with foodpanda in Taiwan has been under the reviewing process of the Taiwan Fair Trade Commission, the potential issues occurred in this case were put on the table to discuss. 

Many renowed experts, scholars, and industry representatives were in attendance of the antitrust seminar. From left: Hao Chu, Director of the Commerce Development Research Institute, Professor Meng-Yen Tsai of National Taipei University of Business, iCHEF co-founder Kai-Yu Cheng, Professor  Jin-Jin Cheng of National Chung-Cheng University, Boston University Economics Professor Marc Rysman, Dr. Ming-Cheng Tsai, former Justice of the Taiwan Constitutional Court; Professor Ya-Chi Chiang of National Taiwan Ocean University; Hung Ou Yang, Managing Partner of Brain Trust International Law Firm.

Dr. Ming-Cheng Tsai commented in the opening speech: "In the face of new challenges in the digital era, such as the rise of the digital economy centered on cross-industry platform business models and the Internet, we should embrace new values ​​and rethink the compliance and solutions of mergers and acquisitions and regulatory regulations to pursue a win-win situation. At the same time, we should also examine norms such as market abuse, reasonable principles, and prohibition of enforcement and seek constructive ways other than preventing market entry." "The Fair Trade Commission should consider economic well-being and weigh the best balance between freedom and fairness,”Dr. Tsai added.

Value Driven Mergers in the Digital Age
Professor Marc Rysman, professor of economics at Boston University, pointed out in his keynote speech: "Merger review is one of the most challenging cases in competition policy. The review of digital platform mergers and acquisitions is usually very complex. It must be reviewed to Evaluate market characteristics from an economic perspective and predict the results of mergers and acquisitions. "Taking the delivery platform as an example, many market characteristics can prevent the market from tilting and forming a natural monopoly. These characteristics include multi-platform usage (i.e., the use of multiple apps or alternatives at both ends of the market), merchant differentiation (through product quality, customer service, pricing strategies, and specialization), which may incentivize merchants to choose to compete with more minor platform collaboration or direct-to-consumer), and pricing interdependence (i.e., the pricing of all three parties in the market affects each other). In addition, ongoing competition after the merger should also be considered, with platforms often competing against non-platform alternatives. For example, in the context of food delivery, consumers can still order food directly from restaurants, and restaurants can also directly accept orders from consumers. These factors limit the platform's ability to dominate the market."

The first panel discussion of the seminar was chaired by Hui-An Tsai, a former commissioner of the Fair Trade Commission, mainly focusing on the legal aspects of merger and acquisition efficiency and effectiveness. During this panel, Hung Ou Yang, Managing Partner of Brain Trust International Law Firm, referred to Article 13, Paragraph 1, of the Fair Trade Act, explaining that "the antitrust law is used to judge whether the merger can be allowed. The focus of the review is to weigh the pros and cons of the two major parts: "disadvantages of competition restrictions" and "overall economic benefits." It will be like putting the two parts on different ends of a scale, and then comparing the weight. If the "overall economic benefits" are greater than the "disadvantages of competition restrictions", then the merger shall not be prohibited.

As corporate mergers and acquisitions have long been an international business development trend, this seminar deeply explored the importance of mergers and acquisitions to Taiwan's industrial and economic development in the digital economy era.