TAIPEI, February 11, 2026 – Taiwan’s Fair Trade Commission (FTC) on February 11 decided at its 1790th Commissioners’ Meeting to fine the Kaohsiung Shipbuilding Engineers Association for setting fee standards for services provided by its member engineers, in violation of the prohibition on concerted actions under the Fair Trade Act.
The FTC found that the association had established fee standards for ship design, inspection and certification services provided by its member shipbuilding engineers. While determining that the conduct constituted an unlawful concerted action, the Commission imposed a fine of TWD 150,000, taking into account the association’s small membership, limited financial resources and its active cooperation and corrective actions during the investigation.
According to the FTC, shipbuilding engineers are licensed professionals engaged in ship design, inspection and certification services. The Kaohsiung Shipbuilding Engineers Association is currently the only association in Taiwan formed by shipbuilding engineers and has 14 members, all of whom are practicing engineers.
The investigation found that between 2020 and 2024 the association’s annual work plans included the “adjustment/establishment of reference fee standards and scope of work for shipbuilding engineers.” Since 2020, the association had set fee standards for ship design, inspection and certification services through board resolutions and discussions among board members or in members’ LINE messaging groups.
The FTC stated that the association’s conduct amounted to a form of “price fixing,” which is harmful to market competition. Even though the association did not mandate that all members uniformly adopt the fee standards, the establishment of such standards was considered capable of influencing members’ pricing decisions. This was found to be inconsistent with the competitive mechanism under which individual enterprises independently determine prices and sufficient to affect market supply and demand functions.
The Commission noted that cases involving associations setting fee standards in violation of the Fair Trade Act are not uncommon and reiterated its reminder that associations should refrain from adopting fee standards through board resolutions or other means in order to safeguard fair competition in the market.
Source: https://www.ftc.gov.tw/internet/main/doc/docDetail.aspx?uid=126&docid=18350
