Database

Under the Cross-Strait Services Trade Agreement (signed in 2013) with the Chinese Mainland, Chinese e-commerce companies are allowed to invest in Taiwan. Nonetheless the Agreement was never ratified by the Taiwanese parliament.

In March 2015, reports disclosed that the Taiwanese authorities demanded the e-commerce company Alibaba to withdraw from the island within six months accusing investment restrictions violations on Mainland-controlled firms. Alibaba had entered Taiwan as a foreign company through its subsidiary, registered in Singapore. Taiwanese authorities considered Alibaba as a Mainland registred company as more than 30% stake was controlled by Mainland investors. In June 2015, a new application was sent in from Alibaba to Taiwan and the application is currently being reviewed.

The regulation requires factories to obtain IEC/ISO 17025 certification for production facilities, although internationally this is the standard for test and laboratory facilities and not for production facilities. The international standard for production facilities is ISO 9001. Taiwan regulations require that factories with ISO 9001 certification are to be inspected by the Bureau of Energy (BoE) upon renewal of their certification within three years.

According to the “Measures Governing Registration of Product Certification”, there are 138 electrical commodities and 103 electronic commodities announced as subject to import inspection. The Sixth Division of the Bureau of Standards, Metrology and Inspection (BSMI) is in charge of testing and inspection methods. Taiwan’s testing system is called the “Registration of Product Certification” (RPC). Under the RPC, products are subject to the appropriate conformity assessment modules as determined by the authorities. Manufacturers or importers of these products must apply to the Bureau of Standards, Metrology and Inspection (BSMI) for inspection before shipment or importation.
Beginning in January 2004, BSMI adopted a dual-track approach to allow manufacturers or importers to choose the “Registration of Product Certification” (RPC) scheme or a Batch-by-Batch inspection (BBI) with Type Approval.

Manufacturers or importers must obtain type approval of their products from the Bureau of Standards, Metrology and Inspection (BSMI) and all products must apply for inspection based on the Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) type approval certificate.
There is currently an Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) Mutual Recognition Agreement (MRA) between the U.S. and Taiwan covering information technology products. In accordance with the terms of this MRA, BSMI accepts EMC testing by any
laboratory located in the United States and accredited by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) under the National Voluntary Laboratory Accreditation Program (NAVLAP). NIST accredited labs outside the U.S. are not accepted by BSMI.

According to the Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA), the private sector organization must delete or discontinue processing the information when the purpose of collection has been fulfilled or the period in which the personal information may be used has expired, or it must delete the information when requested to do so by the data subject.

The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) established stringent rules for processing of personal financial information off-shore. Yet, on May 2014, the requirements that both local and foreign banks establish standalone onshore data centers were lifted.

There is no consent requirement for transfer in third countries, but the data subject has to be notified in advance that his/her personal data is being transferred to another country.

Yet, according to Article 21 of the Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA), the international transmission of personal information can be interrupted by the central competent government authority if the transmission involves major national interests or if the country receiving personal information lacks adequate data protection laws.

The transfer of personal information to mainland China is prohibited.

For contractual service suppliers (CSS) and independent service suppliers (ISS), there is a policy to contribute to the effective utilization of human resources and nationals’ employment in Taiwan. This means that the government formulates adjustment measures regarding the supply and demand of human resources pursuant to the investigatory information relevant to the situation of employment and unemployment. This measure entails that an employer shall first make domestic recruitment with reasonable labor terms. Only in case a domestic recruitment cannot acquire sufficient number of employee(s) to satisfy his/her business needs, the employer may apply for a permit to recruit foreign service suppliers, called a "Permit to recruit Foreign Person(s)".

Furthermore, when conducting recruitment of a foreign worker, the employer must notify the labor union of the business entity of the full and entire content concerning such recruitment and must also publicly announce the same in the work place designated for the foreign worker to engage in the work. It is unclear whether this requirement also holds for Intra-corporate transferees (ICT).

Article 48 of the Employment Services Act states that the Central Competent Authority may prescribe quotas for foreign workesr who engages in activities referred to in Article 46.

ICT, digital, data services or telecommunications may fall in Art. 46 under "1. Specialized or technical work", but their regime remains unclear.

Chunghwa Telecom (CHT), the incumbent telecommunications provider in Taiwan, is a State Owned Enterprise (SOE).

Telecommunications liberalization in Taiwan began in 1996 with the opening of the telecommunication market to private investments, the creation of a regulatory agency and the transformation of Chunghwa Telecom into a State Owned Enterprise (SOE) offering telecommunication services in a competitive environment.

By 2001, the telecommunications market in Taiwan was completely deregulated. Nonetheless, access to the last mile is still owned by the incumbent Chunghwa Telecom.

It is reported that Taiwan’s Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) supports a patent bank which aims to collect useful patents and provide assistance to Taiwanese firms, for example against Korean competitors in the LCD displays.

There are reports of a number of IPR issues in Taiwan, including online piracy of copyrighted materials and end-user piracy of software. There is also an alleged problem related to the importation and trans-shipment of counterfeit products from Mainland China.

Taiwan allows fair use of copyrighted work for education, quotation, broadcasting and library use.