监制:Pierra CHOI
Associate Executive Producer: Gladys YEUNG
In a free market economy, business compete with each other to offer the best range of products at the best price. A competitive market leads to better prices, products and choice for everyone. However, in reality, these visions often meet challenges. Behaviours that undermine fair play, such as bid-rigging, market sharing and price fixing, do not only affect consumer interests, but also damage the free and fair-playing business environment.
This television drama contains 5 half-an-hour episodes, and is jointly produced by the TV Division of Radio Television Hong Kong and the Competition Commission (the Commission). The stories, adapted from real cases, arouse audience’s interest and attention to related issues through realistic plots and characters. The main characters in this drama are officers in the Investigation Team of the Commission, and the whole series involved a total of 4 cases.
Introduction of the Characters:
Johnny LAM (Played by Alan LUK)
Head (Investigation) of the Commission
Pragmatic, calm and has a good sense of humour. Believes in evidence and science, and likes to meditate alone.
Comes from grassroots, and self-alliance.
Ashley YEUNG (Played by Jennifer YU)
Manager (Investigation) of the Commission
Knowledgeable and familiar with the ordinances. Rigorous and serious at work, and highly motivated.
Joined the Commission in the same year as Sean did. Have different working styles and often ignite sparks while competing in a healthy way.
Sean SUNG (Played by Himmy WONG)
Manager (Investigation) of the Commission
A liberal person, loves sports, pays attention to own appearance and thinks he has good taste.
Observant, thoughtful, and can always find the key points from the details.
Nicole SHUM (Played by LAM Chin-ting)
Competition Affairs Officer (Investigation) of the Commission
A rookie, believes in intuition, and quite a fast learner.
Spoiled by doting parents, and never had a real taste of the suffering in life.
Episode 2: Fair Fortune Part 1
Starring: Alan LUK, Jennifer YU, LAM Chin-ting, Himmy WONG, Rachel LEUNG, Marx CHEUNG
The Housing Department allows some decoration contractors to promote their business in newly completed public housing estates, to facilitate residents to renovate their new homes. However, some decoration contractors conduct market sharing and allocate designated floors among themselves for exclusive business. In addition, they agree not to compete with each other but share the market.
The Competition Commission (The Commission) decides to take action after receiving complaints. Since the decoration contractors may not have fixed offices, it is difficult to search for evidence. The Investigation Team decides to assign Ashley (played by Jennifer YU) as the team leader to conduct home visits, to look for clues, hoping to obtain strong evidence. Johnny (played by Alan LUK) decides to participate in the action in person, so as to guide Nicole (played by LAM Chin-ting), the new team member.
During the operation, Ashley and Sean (played by Himmy WONG) meet a drunk man who suddenly vomits during the interview. In order to protect his expensive suit from getting dirty, Sean dodges away from him, which upsets Ashley, and their mutually reinforcing trap remains.
After consolidating the evidence provided by the residents, Johnny decided to interview the decoration contractors. They seems to have been well prepared for a long time, and they have “aligned their testimonies” to defend themselves. In fact, Big Lui (played by Marx CHEUNG), a veteran in decoration business, and his daughter Rachel (played by Rachel LEUNG) have long noticed the action of the Commission and already prepared countermeasures.
Episode 3: Fair Fortune Part 2
Starring: Alan LUK, Jennifer YU, LAM Chin-ting, Himmy WONG, Rachel LEUNG, Marx CHEUNG
We now rewind to more than 20 years ago, when a new housing estate had just been completed. Disputes and even fights broke out among the decoration contractors when they competed for business. Subsequently, Big Lui stepped forward and told everyone the importance of harmony and they allocated designated floors among themselves to do their own business. These decoration contractors are very satisfied with this “pie sharing” practice, and they have been using this self-coordination mechanism since then.
Just when the Investigation Team is about to prosecute the decoration contractors, it receives a complaint from a resident of another newly built public housing estate against the decoration contractors, for their conspiracy to allocate designated floors among themselves for market sharing, and Big Lui’s company is also involved.
After receiving the charge sheets, the decoration contractors discuss their countermeasures together, and they cannot agree on whether they should to enter a lawsuit. In fact, Rachel has already consulted her friend who is a lawyer, and they are not optimistic about the lawsuit. However, Rachel still cast an affirmative vote, and Big Lui is disappointed with his daughter’s decision.
The decoration contractors plead not guilty, arguing that they are doing it for economic benefit / efficiency and for the sake of convenience of the residents. The Investigation Team of the Competition Commission continues to search for evidence perseveringly. In the end, the court finds that the decoration contractors are guilty of contravening the Competition Ordinance. Subsequently, the Housing Department also implements a series of new measures to prevent similar incidents from happening again.