A complaint alleging that Chia Yi Co., Ltd. used the name Pei Lian She Fu Li P'in Kung Hsiao Chan [United Northern Community PX Goods Supplier] in violation of the Fair Trade Law

Chinese Taipei

Case:

A complaint alleging that Chia Yi Co., Ltd. used the name Pei Lian She Fu Li P'in Kung Hsiao Chan [United Northern Community PX Goods Supplier] in violation of the Fair Trade Law

Key Words:

Chia Yi Co., Ltd., United Northern Community, mislead

Reference:

Fair Trade Commission Decision of May 19, 1999 (the 393rd Commissioner's Meeting); Disposition (88) Kung Chu Tzu No. 055

Industry:

Volume retailing (5314)

Relevant Laws:

Articles 21 of the Fair Trade Law

Summary:

  1. The complaint stated in brief that:
    Chia Yi printed the words Pei Lian She Fu Li P'in Kung Hsiao Chan ("United Northern Community PX Goods Supplier") on its plastic grocery bags in a suspected allusion to the term he tso she "cooperative" and in violation of Article 21 of the Fair Trade Law ("the Law").

  2. Chia Yi is a for-profit company limited by shares. It has also registered its ownership of Pei Lian She (United Northern Community) as an exclusive service mark. However, Chia Yi is registered neither as a cooperative nor to engage in cooperative operations. Printing the aforementioned representation or symbol makes it likely that an ordinary member of the public paying a normal amount of attention would mistakenly believe that the business is a consumer cooperative organization or Ministry of National Defense General Welfare Service supply outlet. As a result of this misapprehension, many ordinary members of the public would go on to make purchases at Chia Yi. Moreover, Chia Yi admitted to the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) at the hearing that it had used the name "United Northern Community" to indicate that the products it offered were PX products and that there was a distinction between Chia Yi and other supermarkets. This was done to compete for and attract customers. An investigation discovered that although Chia Yi owned exclusive rights to the "United Northern Community" service mark, the firm did not use this service mark on its sign or grocery bags. Instead it used United Northern Community PX Goods Supplier. In sum, the representation or symbol in question is found to meet the conditions for being false and misleading. It is in violation of Article 21(3) and, mutatis mutandis, Article 21(1) of the Law.

Summarized by Tu Hsing-feng
Supervised by Pai Yu-chuang

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