Three tobacco companies — one domestic and two foreign — were under investigation on suspicion that they colluded to raise prices for 58 types of cigarettes under their brands, the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) said.
The NT$5-per-pack rise for the cigarettes, which together make up about 80 percent of the nation’s cigarette market, struck the FTC as “suspicious” because the change occurred on Monday, the same day the health tax on cigarettes was raised from NT$10 to NT$20 per pack, FTC department director Chang En-shen (張恩生) said at a press conference.
“If the three companies — Taiwan Tobacco and Liquor Corporation, Swiss firm Philip Morris International and Japanese firm JT International — are found to have colluded in the price increase, they will face fines of up to NT$25 million [US$757,000],” Chang said.
Consumer Protection Commission (CPC) senior consumer ombudsman and director-general Wu Cheng-hsueh (吳政學) said the case came to the FTC, the CPC and the Department of Health’s attention because consumers had called the CPC over the past two days to complain.
“Though the three companies all said the prices were adjusted to reflect costs, it is very curious that despite the varying costs and different places of production for these cigarettes, they decided to tag on an extra NT$5, and on the same day,” he said.
Though the FTC has prioritized the investigation, it would respect the firms’ decision to change the prices of their products if the three had made their decisions separately, Chang said.
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