What is a Competition Restriction Agreement?

The acts regulated by the Competition Law as competition-restricting agreements include the following 8 types of agreements:

(1) Agreements on direct or indirect determination of prices of goods or services refer to agreements to take joint actions in one of the following forms:

- Uniformly applying price levels to some or all customers;- Increasing or decreasing prices to a specific level;- Applying a common pricing formula;- Maintaining a fixed ratio of related product prices;- No discounting or uniformly applying discount levels;- Allocating credit limits to customers;- Not lowering prices without notifying other agreement members;- Using uniform price levels at the start of price negotiations.

(2) Agreements on the division of consumption markets, supply sources of goods, and provision of services:

- Agreements on market division are agreements on the quantity of goods, services; locations for purchasing, selling goods, services; customer groups for each party to the agreement.- Agreements on the division of supply sources of goods, provision of services are agreements that each party to the agreement can only purchase goods, services from one or several specific sources.

(3) Agreements on restricting or controlling production, purchase, sale of goods, services in quantity or volume:

- Agreements on restricting the quantity and volume of production, purchase, sale of goods, services refer to unanimous agreements to cut or reduce the quantity and volume of production, purchase, sale of goods, provision of services in the related market compared to before.- Agreements on controlling the quantity and volume of production, purchase, sale of goods, provision of services refer to unanimous agreements to determine the quantity and volume of production, purchase, sale of goods, provision of services at a level sufficient to create scarcity in the market.

(4) Agreements on restricting technical, technological development, and investment:

- Agreements on restricting technical, technological development refer to unanimous agreements to purchase inventions, utility solutions, industrial designs for destruction or non-use.- Agreements on restricting investment refer to unanimous agreements not to inject additional capital to expand production, improve the quality of goods, services, or for other expansion.

(5) Agreements imposing on other enterprises conditions for contracting in buying, selling goods, services, or forcing other enterprises to accept obligations not directly related to the subject matter of the contract:

- Agreements imposing on other enterprises conditions for contracting in buying, selling goods, services refer to unanimous agreements to set one or several prerequisite conditions before signing contracts:- Restrictions on the production, distribution of other goods; purchase, provision of other services not directly related to the commitments of the agent as per the regulations on agency law.- Restrictions on resale places, except for goods in the list of conditional business items or restricted business items as per legal regulations.- Restrictions on customers purchasing goods to resell, except as specified in point b of this clause.- Restrictions on the form and quantity of goods to be supplied.- Agreements forcing other enterprises to accept obligations not directly related to the subject matter of the contract refer to unanimous agreements to bind other enterprises when buying, selling goods, services with any enterprise participating in the agreement, making them buy other goods, services from pre-designated suppliers or individuals, or perform one or several obligations beyond the necessary scope of the contract.

(6) Agreements preventing, restraining other enterprises from participating in the market or business development:

- Agreements preventing, restraining other enterprises from participating in the market refer to unanimous agreements not to transact with enterprises not participating in the agreement or jointly take actions in one of the following forms:- Requesting, calling upon, enticing their customers not to buy, sell goods, not to use services of enterprises not participating in the agreement;- Buying, selling goods, services at a price level sufficient for enterprises not participating in the agreement to be unable to enter the related market.- Agreements preventing, restraining other enterprises from business development refer to unanimous agreements not to transact with enterprises not participating in the agreement or jointly take actions in one of the following forms:- Requesting, calling upon, enticing distributors, retailers dealing with them to discriminate against the purchase, sale of goods of enterprises not participating in the agreement to cause difficulties for the consumption of goods of these enterprises;- Buying, selling goods, services at a price level sufficient for enterprises not participating in the agreement to be unable to expand business scale.

(7) Agreements eliminating from the market enterprises not parties to the agreement:

The agreement on eliminating from the market enterprises that are not parties to the agreement refers to unanimous agreements not to transact with enterprises not participating in the agreement and jointly take actions in the following forms:

- Requesting, calling upon, enticing their customers not to buy, sell goods, not to use services of enterprises not participating in the agreement;- Requesting, calling upon, enticing distributors, retailers dealing with them to discriminate against the purchase, sale of goods of enterprises not participating in the agreement to cause difficulties for the consumption of goods of these enterprises;- Buying, selling goods, services at a price level sufficient for enterprises not participating in the agreement to be unable to expand business scale.- Buying, selling goods, services at a price level sufficient for enterprises not participating in the agreement to withdraw from the related market.

(8) Bidding collusion for one or more parties to win bids in the supply of goods, provision of services:

Bidding collusion for one or more parties to win bids in the supply of goods, provision of services refers to unanimous actions in bidding in one of the following forms:

- One or more parties to the agreement withdraw from bidding or withdraw previously submitted bids for one or more parties to win.- One or more parties to the agreement make it difficult for non-parties during bidding by refusing to supply materials, not signing subcontractor contracts, or other forms of making it difficult.- Parties to the agreement mutually agree to make non-competitive bids or set competitive prices with conditions the tenderer cannot accept to predetermine one or more winning parties.- Parties to the agreement predetermine the number of wins each party gets within a certain time.- Other prohibited actions by law.

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