中油、台塑違法了嗎？ Collusion or not ?

Collusion?
Real case in Taiwan welcoming comments.

There are only two petroleum companies in Taiwan. One is the CPC another is the Formosa (private), the former has 70% market share , 30% the latter. The CPC is a state-owned so if it wants to change oil retail price. The first step is that the CPC should submit suggest price to the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) waiting for the final decision from the MOEA. Final price is often not equal to suggest price (always lower). Before adjusting price, the CPC will announce to the public by news release in advance. And the Formosa always follows the CPC's final price and early about two hours than the CPC to change its price. Then someone think it is a concerted action between the CPC and the Formosa. That is the CPC pass the information of price change by news release to the Formosa to reach a mutual understanding to change retail price simultaneously. The competition authority in Taiwan, Taiwan FTC also thinks it is a collusion between the CPC and the Formosa. Both of two are fined NT$6.5million respectively.

For the TFTC's decision, someone has different opinions. Is it a correct decision? Hope comments from all of you. Thanks in advance.

反托拉斯的名言

1. 亞當斯密在「國富論」（The Wealth of Nations）中描述:
商人很少聚集在一起談論事情，他們若是聚集談話，必定是在商議如何一起將價格抬高。
People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices.

2. 如果我們不能忍受一個擁有政治力的國王，我們就不應該忍受任何日常生活中有關生產、運輸、銷售的國王。

如果我們不願意屈服於一個皇帝，我們也就不應該屈服於以優勢力量阻礙競爭、固定商品價格的大財團。(John Sherman, 1890)

If we will not endure a king as a political power we should not endure a king over the production, transportation, and sale of any of the necessaries of life. If we would not submit to an emperor we should not submit to an autocrat of trade, with power to prevent competition and to fix the price of any commodity.

3. 放棄經濟理論，就意味著失去一部合理的反托拉斯法。 (Robert H. Bork)

4. 如果反托拉斯分析的經濟學基礎出了問題，那麼反托拉斯的執法就會搖搖欲墬。 (Timothy J. Muris)

5. 競爭政策不只是富國專屬的奢侈品，更是所有追求自由市場經濟國家的必需品。( Joseph E. Stiglitz )
Competition policy is no longer “luxury” of developed countries but "necessity”of all countries longing for market economy.

6. 一個沒有唸過經濟學的法律人是極容易成為全民公敵。(L. Brandeis大法官)

A lawyer who has not studied economics is very apt to become a public enemy.

7.我被反壟斷法煩透了。假如價格漲了，法官就說是‘壟斷定價’；價格跌了，就說是‘掠奪定價’；價格不變，就說是‘勾結定價’
Ronald Coase said he had gotten tired of anti-trust because when the prices went up the judges said it was monopoly, when the prices went down they said it was predatory pricing, and when they stayed the same they said it was tacit collusion.  — Source: William Landes, “The Fire of Truth: A Remembrance of Law and Econ at Chicago”, JLE (1981)

7. 競爭法的本質是-----法律的外殼，經濟的內核。

8. 當下進行理性法律研究時，當道的或許還是"白紙黑字"的人，但未來將掌握在統計人與精通經濟學的人手中。  ( Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.大法官)
For the rational study of the law the blackletter man may be the man of the present, but the man of the future is the man of statistics and the master of economics.
~"The Path of the Law", Harvard Law Review (1897)

9. 經濟學家和政治哲學家的思想比世俗理解的更有影響力，無論其正確還是錯誤。實際上世界是被一小部分人統治的。自信不被知識分子影響的那些所謂務實的人，往往只是幾個過時經濟學家思想的奴隸。(John Maynard Keynes)
The ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly understood. Indeed the world is ruled by little else. Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist.