Passed by the 484th Commissioners' Meeting on February 15, 2001
Promulgated by Order (90) Kung San Tzu No. 01229 on April 24, 2001
The title and Point 1 amended by the 688th Commissioners' Meeting on January 13, 2005
Promulgated by Order (94) Kung Fa Tzu No. 0940001296 on February 24, 2005
The title and Point 1 amended by the 1057th Commissioners' Meeting on February 8, 2012
Promulgated by Order Kung Jing Tzu No. 1011460180 on March 3, 2012
Points 1 and 2 amended by the 1217th Commissioners' Meeting on March 4, 2015
Promulgated by Order Kung Jing Tzu No. 10414601864 on March 12, 2015
Amended by the 1241st Commissioners' Meeting on August 19, 2015
Promulgated by Order Kung Jing Tzu No. 1041461089 on August 31, 2015
1.Purpose
The Fair Trade Commission (the Commission) formulated these guidelines specifically for the purpose of determining on how the cases shall be handled when businesses are found in violation of Paragraph 1 or Paragraph 4 of Article 21 in the Fair Trade Law, and when the penalty of placing corrective advertisements is ordered.
2.Timing for Ordering the Placement of Corrective Advertisements
If, by ordering the businesses that violate Paragraph 1 or Paragraph 4 of Article 21 of the Fair Trade Law to place corrective advertisements, one of the following damages, caused by the violation, may be prevented, eliminated, or remedied, then such an order shall be imposed:
(1)The trading counterparts of the illegal business practice continue to rely on the false or misleading information as the basis of their decision-makings, resulting in the risk of affecting the trading order.
(2)The rights and interests of the trading counterparts of the illegal business practice are put at risk, due to their beliefs in the false and misleading information.
3.The Factors in Determining the Damages Caused by the Violation
The existence and the scale of the damages, as referred to in Point 2, with respect to the use of false or misleading representations or symbols, shall be determined on the basis of the following factors:
(1)The media, quantity, frequency, the length of time, and the date of last use;
(2)The strength of the significance and persuasiveness;
(3)The importance to the trade decision;
(4)Other information sources of relevant products or services;
(5)The features of trade and consumption of relevant products or services;
(6)The continuity of relevant trading activities;
(7)The sale or supply of relevant products or services before and after the use.
4.Items to Consider on the Discretion of How to Place Corrective Advertisements
In the event that the case falls into Point 2 and damages have been inflicted, the following items shall be taken into consideration, when requiring the business to place corrective advertisements, in determining the methods, time and quantity of such advertisements:
(1)Whether or not the scope of the illegal business practice is part of the supervisory focus of the Commission;
(2)Whether or not the business has been penalized by the Commission for the case as a result of conducting the same or similar practice;
(3)Whether or not other means of sanction against the business provide sufficient deterrence effects;
(4)The status of correction or corrective measures adopted by the business on its own initiative before the Commission took its action;
(5)The scale, operation status and revenue of the business;
(6)The profit obtained from the illegal business practice;
(7)The extent and duration of the damage due to the illegal business practice;
(8)The possibility for the Commission to adopt other measures that may incur less damage to the interests of the business while still achieve the same purpose and effect of placing the corrective advertisement;
(9)The equilibrium between the burden of the business in producing and disseminating corrective advertisements, and the effects of the corrective advertisements.
5.The Exclusion of Insignificant Cases
When the scale, the operation status, the revenue of the business and the profit obtained from the illegal business practice, are below the general standard, or, neither the extent of the damage due to, or during, the illegal business practice nor the damage to the trading order of the market is significant, then such a violation need not receive the penalty of placing corrective advertisements. However, this disposition does not apply to cases where giving the order to place corrective advertisements as a penalty is found necessary after comprehensive consideration in accordance with Point 4.
The description "the extent of the damage due to, or during, the illegal business practice, is not significant" applies to any one of the following conditions:
(1)Where the number of people receiving possible damages from the illegal representations or symbols is not considerable, while judging by the quantity of the usage, or by the supplied quantity of products or services;
(2)Where the last date of employing such illegal representations or symbols is more than six months from the end of the Commission's investigation. However, this does not apply to cases where the representations or symbols, that were once used for a longtime, intensively and extensively, or the false or misleading information they contain, are continually being disseminated in other ways;
(3)Where the sales or supply of products or services with regard to the illegal practice have been discontinued prior to the end of the Commission's investigation;
(4)The sales or supply volumes of the products or services with regard to the illegal practice have shown no significance differences before and after the practice.
6.Designation of Publishing Content
In placing the corrective advertisement, the party being penalized must use a designated text with a specific and clear description, and must use "Corrective Advertisement" as its title.
The designation of the descriptive text, as mentioned in the preceding paragraph, is dependent upon the requirements imposed upon each individual case so as to disclose its violation of false and misleading items, and other relevant information that is sufficient to rule out misconception. In addition, a statement on the fact of the party being penalized by the Commission must be included in the text.
It is also required that, in placing the corrective advertisement, the party being penalized shall not include any statement in the advertisement that contradicts the descriptive text as referred to in the preceding paragraphs.
7.Designation of Publishing Time
The penalized party shall be ordered to place the corrective advertisement within a certain period of time or on a designated date. The placement shall be no later than thirty (30) days after the disciplinary order is served.
8.Designation of Publishing Methods
The penalized party shall be ordered to place the corrective advertisement using designated methods.
The designation of publishing methods, as referred to in the preceding paragraph, should be based on the principle of actively seeking to quickly and unmistakably be seen or heard by the consumers or businesses that are harmed by the illegal practice. The publication media, frequency, time frames, location and size of the layout, and quantity of the advertisement shall be determined by reference to the broadcast methods of the illegal practice. If necessary, font type or font size, color, markings and other layout methods may be designated.