Regarded as "constitutional law for economics" by economic and legal circles, the law, which "directly protects legal and fair competition and goes a step further by indirectly protecting consumers' rights," has been in effect less than one month, but the administrative body responsible for its enforcement, the Fair Trade Commission, has already filed nearly 2,000 complaints. The public's enthusiastic response and the weird nature of many of the complaints are unprecedented.

Does the Fair Trade Law cover marriage contracts? Lin Pi-ling, who works in the complaint filing center of the Fair Trede Commission, has had the following bizarre experience.

Once a furious wife called up on the phone to file a complaint. She said that she wanted to sue her husband under the Fair Trade Law for breaking their marriage contract. "When I face this kind of situation, I usually try to explain calmly to the person filing the complaint that these kinds of problems cannot be resolved with the Fair Trade Law," she says in a tone that suggests she doesn't know whether to laugh or cry. "Most people can rationally accept an explanation, but there are some who don't care to listen and just shout at us for being 'bureaucratic.'"

According to the Fair Trade Commission's own estimates, less than 10 percent of the complaints it receives really fall under the mandate of the Fair Trade Law. If someone's not complaining about the grocery store next door jacking up its prices for no reason, then someone's just-bought wool sweater has shrunk in the wash. For these kinds of disputes, people "have turned the Fair Trade Commission into a public Consumers' Foundation," says Chairman Wang Chih-kang, who can't stomach the public's passionate love for his commission.

There is, however, a social background that explains why the committee is so busy only shortly after being established.

The interests of consumers in Taiwan have long taken a back seat to those of business. Other than the Consumers' Foundation, which has no public authority, no agency has directly been given responsibility for protecting consumers' rights. And when the Fair Trade Law was announced, even Premier Hau Pei-tsun described the law in the spirit of "ensuring that even the old and the young will not be cheated and ensuring the authenticity of goods and fairness of prices." Hence, it's no wonder that the public thougt that the committee would act as a court to right all wrongs.

Newspaper reporter Li Chieh, who covers the committee, speaks with even greater rapture: "The law's name, the Fair Trade Law, right off the bat gives people a good feeling that the law can be relied upon. The process the commission adopts for filing complaints is extremely simple. With an image of being close to the people, it's no wonder the public has fallen in love with it."

A slayer of businese? The embodiment of righteousness! In contrast to consumers' high expectations about the law, businesses view it with a mixture of caution and dread. Businessmen say privately that the law's prohibiting of economic collusion, exclusive agents and advertising that exceeds the truth really ties their hands. "Next to the labor law, it's done more damage than any other law," said one businessman anxiously.

The public's great expectations about it have turned the law into "an embodiment of justice." Because of this support among the public at large, businesses, while extremely suspicious of the law, have from the start come out supporting it in order to give themselves a good image.

Even real estate companies, which have been involved in most of the disputes and which everyone regards as being most restricted by the law, have been tripping all over themselves to praise it in public. One real estate company has even taken out newspaper advertisements that declare with squeaky clean enthusiasm, "We echo our support for the Fair Trade Law ." Another company took this tack to the extreme with an ad that said, "We salute the Fair Trade Law because it's about what we've been doing all along."

But businesses have been lining up like cows for a milking in ways other than just to declare their faith.

How many oysters in the omelet before it's legal? From the start, such famous large companies as President Enterprises and the Hung-kuo Group hired legal consultants to make detailed analyses and explanations of the Fair Trade Law. And small-and mid-sized enterprises, which don't often employ legal consultants, have likewise been going through various channels to learn as much as they can about the law. Conferences, in which businesses shell out several thousand NT dollars to hear business consultants explain the law, and public announcement meetings put on by the Fair Trade Commission to publicize the law have been packed to capacity.

Yang Hsiou-chuan, who planned every item of the Fair Trade Law as the head of the commission's Legal Affairs Division, has been kept on the run attending these kinds of meetings. "Sometimes I have gone to two in one day," she says. "When you add on my other duties, it's crazy how busy I am." She says that she leaves home at 7:00 in the morning and doesn't get back until 8:00 or 9:00 at night.

But after the Fair Trade Law went into effect--even if only one case has been tried to date--businesses have reviewed their behavior, and the law has engendered a new concern for fairness. Yang Hsiou-chuan maintains the results are worth the effort. Once when she accepted an invitation from a department store to come give a talk about the Fair Trade Law, someone who worked in the food and beverage department asked her this question: If a customer complains that the oysters in his omelet are fewer than those in the picture, is this a violation of the Law? Facing this somewhat excessively careful man, Yang Hsiou-chuan said, "As long as the number of oysters doesn't vary too much, there probably isn't any problem, but it would be best for the number to be the same as in the picture."

Taking care not to break the law: In fact there are no small number of businessmen as careful as this member of the snack food industry. Various trade associations whose members had been keeping in close touch are reducing the number of their get-togethers to avoid arousing suspicion.

Members of the optical instruments industry, for example, originally planned to go through their association to establish a united purchasing system last year. Now the plan has been shelved. To avoid any appearance of collusion, the textile association now has a policy of "only chatting, no talk about prices" at their meetings. The more than ten members of the Cement Industry Guild, which has of late been in the spotlight, used to commission an accounting firm together but have now individually hired accountants to keep their books.

Probably hardest hit of all have been various state-run monopolies. There are plans to privatize the Taiwan Tobacco and Wine Monopoly Bureau, which was founded over a hundred years ago during the era of the Japanese occupation. China Steel, which has always had the best operations of all state-run businesses, is making an overall review of its "center-satellite" system of sales. And the different charges Tai Power levies for power and the priority given to Taiwan Machinery for taking over 10 percent of state-run machinery concerns are going to be facing examination under the Fair Trade Law.

Because the Fair Trade Law has such a broad and deep impact, its implementation has resulted in a series of chain reactions that has led to the creation of a number of businesses.

The Fair Trade Law industry: For example, quite a few publishing houses have used this opportunity to publish books explaining the law. Cram schools and business administration consultants have teamed up to offer courses, and the money has been rolling in. Even Liaw Yih-nan, MD, the vice chairman of the commission, plans to publish a book about the law. When it's published, we can expect people will scramble over each other to get "the real thing."

What's more, the Fair Trade Law has created a swarm of "Fair Trade Law celebrities." With the high exposure given each member of the commission, they have all become familiar to the public. Experts who have frequently been asked to give speeches on the law--such as professor at National Cheng Chih University Su Yung-chin, professor in the graduate school of law at Soochow University Tsai Ying-wen, or lawyer Li Yung-jan--have also become well known.

Practicing lawyer Yu Ying-fu believes that the strict restrictions placed on businesses by the Fair Trading Law are making them face up to the necessity of shelling out for legal counsel. "Businesses can't wait until they have a problem to find a lawyer to cover their asses." Ordinarily they ought to hire a legal consulting firm to do overall planning. Facing up to the law is a necessary condition for the normal running of a business.

Calling for a legal consciousness: Although the Fair Trade Law has been widely approved, one can tell from the "marriage contract" and "oyster omelet" examples that while the intent of the law is good, it still has its blind spots.

"Most people's understanding of the law is insufficient," holds Yu Ying-fu. Our society relies ever more heavily on law. The media can learn from American papers, which routinely report on legal news like precedent, the leanings of judges and explanations of legal stipulations. These reports create a populace with a relatively deep understanding of legal matters.

Even if the implementation of the Fair Trade Law has not gone as smoothly as expected and has created numerous misunderstandings, it is still a good phenomenon. As Yang Hsiou-chuan says, "In the past, everyone became used to improper dealings and took them for granted. That wasn't right. The Fair Trade Law has been implemented with the hope of putting society on its proper course."

[Picture Caption]

The Fair Trade Commission's center for filing complaints has become in the public's eye, "a court to right all wrongs."

The "Shangmeng Case" was the first time the commission found that a company had broken the "Fair Trade Law." The reason: misleading advertising!