Taiwan’s Fair Trade Commission (FTC) is investigating Yahoo for possible antitrust violation after users complained about the company’s new fee policy for its auction service.

The island’s largest portal announced Tuesday that starting Aug. 10, it will charge users 3 percent of transaction fees on most of the auction items, in addition to current fixed fees for listing and various functions.

The move comes one month after archrival eBay threw in the towel in a losing battle against Yahoo, and instead formed a joint venture with PCHome, the third largest portal.

Reacting to complaints filed by dissatisfied users, the FTCsaid yesterday that it will look into the case and determine whether Yahoo is monopolizing the market and if it has manipulated prices.

“We’ll need to decide whether Yahoo has a monopoly status in Taiwan’s auction market.” said Chen Rong-long, representative of the FTC.

“Yahoo will be fined for a maximum of $25 million Taiwan dollars (US$780,000) if the commission determines the company is manipulating the price with its monopoly power,” he added.

According to local law, a company with an annual revenue of one billion Taiwan dollars (US$31 million) and owning at least one third of a specific market will qualify as a monopoly. Yahoo did not reveal its revenue number in Taiwan.

Posted: 07|27|06 at 10:05 am. Filed under: Auction News.