The Investment Commission yesterday said it plans to appeal a ruling by an administrative court in favor of Taobao Hong Kong Ltd (香港淘寶), insisting the online retailer has failed to comply with investment rules in Taiwan.
“Although Taobao registered as a foreign company, its Chinese shareholders have de facto control of the firm, in violation of Taiwan’s investment regulations,” commission Executive Secretary Emile Chang (張銘斌) said by telephone.
Taobao Hong Kong’s parent company, Alibaba Group Holdings Co (阿里巴巴), in 2008 entered Taiwan by registering as a Singaporean company, Alibaba.com Singapore E-Commerce Private Ltd, instead of as a Chinese company, according to Ministry of Economic Affairs data.
In 2013, Taobao registered in Taiwan as a Hong Kong-based company, Taobao Hong Kong, the data showed.
The commission in March last year fined Alibaba NT$120,000 and demanded that it withdraw its investment from Taiwan, because Alibaba Hong Kong’s Chinese shareholders, although owning less than a 30 percent stake, have de facto control of the firm, and it failed to change its business registration to a Chinese company in Taiwan.
The commission in May last year ordered Taobao Hong Kong to leave Taiwan altogether for the same reason, doubling the fine to NT$240,000 and saying the company should voluntarily change its business registration after the fine.
Both Alibaba and Taobao Hong Kong filed administrative appeals with the Executive Yuan’s Administrative Appeals Commission and were allowed to continue operating in Taiwan during the legal proceeding.
The Taipei High Administrative Court last week ruled against the commission.
The court said Taobao Hong Kong entered Taiwan as a foreign company a year before its parent company launched an initial public offering and disclosed its shareholders’ information on the New York Stock Exchange.
The ruling said that while Taobao Hong Kong’s Chinese shareholders might have control of the company, no regulations in Taiwan stipulate that the company must change its business registration.
The administrative court concluded the Investment Commission cannot fine Taobao Hong Kong, nor ask it to withdraw its investment from Taiwan.
Chang said the Investment Commission would file an appeal after it receives a formal copy of the ruling.
“We still think it [Taobao Hong Kong] is not a foreign company, but a Chinese company, so it should abide by Chinese investment regulations,” Chang added.
Chang said the Investment Commission plans to amend its investment regulations, requiring foreign companies to reapply for business permits in Taiwan if their Chinese investors have real control of the company.
The administrative court last month ruled in favor of the Investment Commission in Alibaba’s case and the company appealed the ruling, the agency said.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) last week recorded an increase in the number of shareholders to the highest in almost eight months, despite its share price falling 3.38 percent from the previous week, Taiwan Stock Exchange data released on Saturday showed. As of Friday, TSMC had 1.88 million shareholders, the most since the week of April 25 and an increase of 31,870 from the previous week, the data showed. The number of shareholders jumped despite a drop of NT$50 (US$1.59), or 3.38 percent, in TSMC’s share price from a week earlier to NT$1,430, as investors took profits from their earlier gains
In a high-security Shenzhen laboratory, Chinese scientists have built what Washington has spent years trying to prevent: a prototype of a machine capable of producing the cutting-edge semiconductor chips that power artificial intelligence (AI), smartphones and weapons central to Western military dominance, Reuters has learned. Completed early this year and undergoing testing, the prototype fills nearly an entire factory floor. It was built by a team of former engineers from Dutch semiconductor giant ASML who reverse-engineered the company’s extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) machines, according to two people with knowledge of the project. EUV machines sit at the heart of a technological Cold
Taiwan’s long-term economic competitiveness will hinge not only on national champions like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC, 台積電) but also on the widespread adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) and other emerging technologies, a US-based scholar has said. At a lecture in Taipei on Tuesday, Jeffrey Ding, assistant professor of political science at the George Washington University and author of "Technology and the Rise of Great Powers," argued that historical experience shows that general-purpose technologies (GPTs) — such as electricity, computers and now AI — shape long-term economic advantages through their diffusion across the broader economy. "What really matters is not who pioneers
TAIWAN VALUE CHAIN: Foxtron is to fully own Luxgen following the transaction and it plans to launch a new electric model, the Foxtron Bria, in Taiwan next year Yulon Motor Co (裕隆汽車) yesterday said that its board of directors approved the disposal of its electric vehicle (EV) unit, Luxgen Motor Co (納智捷汽車), to Foxtron Vehicle Technologies Co (鴻華先進) for NT$787.6 million (US$24.98 million). Foxtron, a half-half joint venture between Yulon affiliate Hua-Chuang Automobile Information Technical Center Co (華創車電) and Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), expects to wrap up the deal in the first quarter of next year. Foxtron would fully own Luxgen following the transaction, including five car distributing companies, outlets and all employees. The deal is subject to the approval of the Fair Trade Commission, Foxtron said. “Foxtron will be
RSS