Extraction of information from other companies' websites by Ling Ya Information Co., Ltd. (Ling Ya) and misrepresentation of that information as its own, an unfair practice sufficient to affect the trading order in violation of Article 24 of the Fair Trade Law.
Case:
Extraction of information from other companies' websites by Ling Ya Information Co., Ltd. (Ling Ya) and misrepresentation of that information as its own, an unfair practice sufficient to affect the trading order in violation of Article 24 of the Fair Trade Law.
Key Words:
Manpower bank, exploiting the results of other's efforts, unfair trading practices
Reference:
Fair Trade Commission Decision of June 29, 2000 (the 451st Commissioners' Meeting); Disposition (89) Kung Chu Tzu No. 118
Industry:
Information Provision Services (7503)
Relevant Laws:
Article 24 of the Fair Trade Law
Summary:
1. The complainant is an on-line manpower agency and employment-matching firm. It provides job seekers and employers with job information and employment-matching services. The complainant stated that one such job seeker informed him that his personal resume information displayed on the 104 Manpower Bank website had later appeared on the Fan Ya Manpower Bank website. The complainant submitted a letter of complaint in January of 1999 alleging that the Fan Ya Manpower Bank was engaged in illicit pirating of job seekers' resume information from the websites of other companies and presenting it as its own property. 2. The Fair Trade Commission found that most people browsing the 104 Manpower Bank website would not be able to access information of the name, telephone number, and address of the prospective employee. These information would only be revealed to prospective employers who had contracted with 104 Manpower Bank to obtain such information. Ling Ya, the actual operator of the Fan Ya Manpower Bank, was not such a contracting employer. At the same time, according to the testimony of an interested party, the identical resume information of individuals originally registered only with 104 Manpower Bank had in fact appeared on the Fan Ya Manpower Bank website with the inclusion of their names and personal contact information. Those individuals had never registered with the Fan Ya Manpower Bank website, and Ling Ya was unable to explain through what source it had obtained that information. 3. The investigation confirmed that Ling Ya was in fact pirating information from the websites of other companies and passing it off as its own, with the intention of attracting a greater number of clients and in turn enhancing its business opportunities and increasing advertising revenues. Such conduct exploits the results of others' efforts, and is sufficient to affect the trading order in which functions of price, quality, and service are central to market competition. This conduct is obviously unfair with respect to those enterprises that do adhere to such a market competition framework. Such conduct is blame worthy under ordinary business ethics, and is in violation of Article 24 of the Fair Trade Law. In consideration of the business revenues of Ling Ya, the motives behind its conduct, the degree of its influence on the trading order of the marketplace, its expectation of unreasonable profits, the length of time the unlawful conduct continued, as well as Ling Ya's attitude toward its violations, the Commission, pursuant to the fore part of Article 41 of the Fair Trade Law, ordered Ling Ya to immediately cease its unlawful conduct and levied a fine against it of 250,000 New Taiwan Dollars. Appendix: Ling Ya Information Co. Ltd.'s Uniform Invoice Number: 70367711 Summarized by Liang Ya-Chin; Supervised by Horng Der-Chang