14 DAY TRIAL // The Sunnyvale Company's decision to impose a 3% transaction fee on each item sold via its auctioning site was met with opposition from Taiwanese auctioneers. The auctioneers claim that the transaction fee adds up to other sales taxes diminishing profits considerably and as a consequence they formed a movement accusing Yahoo Taiwan of monopoly decisions. In this context, Taiwan's Fair Trade Commission has stated that it will debut an investigation concerning Yahoo's alleged antitrust policy. Up until August 10, 2006, Yahoo Taiwan has offered the auctioning services for free relying solely on advertising revenue. Yahoo claims that the new fees are meant to assure an improvement in the site's services.
We'll need to decide whether Yahoo! has a monopoly status in Taiwan's auction market. Yahoo! will be fined for a maximum of TWD$25m (US$780,000) if the commission determines the company is manipulating the price with its monopoly power," stated Chen Rong-long, a FTC representative.
The alleged market monopoly and price manipulation come in the eve of Yahoo's coronation as Taiwanese auctioning market leader, while Ebay has decided to form an alliance with PCHome, after failing to come close to Yahoo's performances. For the FTC to find Yahoo guilty of monopolizing the market, the Taiwanese division of the Sunnyvale Company has to own at least a third of the local auctioning market and earn revenues in excess of 31 million dollars.