Taipei, January 28, 2026 — Taiwan’s Fair Trade Commission has fined the Taichung City Real Estate Appraisers Association for setting a unified minimum fee for court-appointed valuation work, finding that the practice amounted to an unlawful joint conduct restricting price rivalry among its members.
The authority said the association adopted a standard fee of NTD 20,000 per case for members handling court-commissioned “simplified appraisal pricing” assignments. The conduct was found to violate the Fair Trade Act’s prohibition on concerted actions.
The FTC ordered the association to immediately cease the conduct and imposed a fine of NTD 200,000 (approximately $6,355).
Fine for Fee Fixing Practices
The case arose after the Changhua District Court sought to establish a reference list of qualified appraisers to assist parties in litigation involving matters such as access rights to landlocked property. The court requested relevant professional bodies to inform their members and invite those interested in undertaking simplified appraisal assignments to independently report their proposed fee levels.
According to the FTC, instead of passing on the request for individual responses, the Taichung association consulted a small number of members and informed the court that appraisal fees should not fall below NTD 20,000 per case. The association subsequently announced this fee level at a members’ meeting.
Emails sent to members seeking expressions of interest, as well as correspondence with the court, also stated that the applicable fee would “in principle” be NTD 20,000 per case.
Market impact
The FTC said the court’s intention in creating the reference list was to allow litigants to compare fee levels and select appraisers accordingly. However, because the association imposed a uniform fee, all 68 appraisers on the list who were association members reported the same price in the main appraisal category.
As a result, litigants were unable to differentiate between appraisers based on price. The FTC noted that even where individual appraisers may have been willing to offer lower fees, they were deprived of the opportunity to compete for assignments through the reference list.
The authority said the uniform fee weakened incentives for price competition, distorted supply-and-demand dynamics and breached the Fair Trade Act’s ban on joint conduct.
Compliance reminder
The FTC stressed that while professional associations may assist public institutions in administrative processes, setting unified fee standards exceeds the boundaries permitted under the law. It urged trade and professional associations to avoid conduct that restricts members’ independent pricing decisions.
Source: https://www.ftc.gov.tw/internet/main/doc/docDetail.aspx?uid=126&docid=18335
