Chan Ch'en International Co. Ltd. engaged in obviously unfair acts capable of affecting the order of trade by delivering free of charge materials from the Internet site of its competitor 104 Job Bank to Chan Ch'en' s own trading counterparts.
Case:
Chan Ch'en International Co. Ltd. engaged in obviously unfair acts capable of affecting the order of trade by delivering free of charge materials from the Internet site of its competitor 104 Job Bank to Chan Ch'en's own trading counterparts.
Key Words:
exploitation, duplication, job bank
Reference:
Fair Trade Commission Decision of April 26, 2000 (the 442nd Commissioners' Meeting); Disposition (89) Kung Ch'u Tzu No. 072
Industry:
Information Provision Services (7500)
Relevant Laws:
Article 24 of the Fair Trade Law
Summary:
1. Fu Hua International Market Development Consultancy Co., Ltd. (complainant) filed a complaint with the Fair Trade Commission (the Commission) against Chan Ch'en International Co. Ltd. (respondent). In the complaint, complainant alleged that respondent was not one of complainant's customers, yet the respondent had repeatedly exploited without authorization the job-wanted and -opening data provided by the complainant as a service on complainant's job search Internet site "104 Jobs" (www.104.com.tw). Respondent engaged in such unauthorized exploitation by inserting the statement "Free gift: 104 Job Bank" in the notes of its advertising agreements with Hsing Chi Audio-Visual Co., and the statement "PS: We supply 104 Job Bank Information" in the notes of its advertising agreement with Ying Hsien Enterprises Ltd. (Ying Hsien). The respondent further faxed personal information on individuals seeking jobs through 104 Job Bank to Ying Hsien. The complainant believed that the respondent's acts violated the Fair Trade Law (the Law). 2. The respondent claimed its advertising strategy, advertisement contents, and business scope were very different from that of the complainant. However, the Commission found that both companies listed provision of job search services as their primary business activity, and were plainly competitors. The Commission also noted that in the past three years, in addition to incurring enormous monthly payroll costs and marketing expenses for the operation of "104 Jobs," the complainant had also invested considerable effort and capital in the training of staff and the development of basic infrastructure including Internet software and hardware facilities and communication network. As a result, the complainant had successfully built "104 Jobs" into Chinese Taipei's largest and most popular job search site. In contrast, the respondent had sought to augment its own business opportunities by giving its trading counterparts in trade personal information of job seekers that rightfully belonged to the complainant. The respondent had neither invested any effort nor incurred any costs in passing on this information. It also failed to obtain complainant's authorization to use such materials. After reviewing the respondent's acts, the Commission found that the respondent had aggressively exploited the fruits of another's labor and undermined the competition in price, quality, and service which are core to the order in trade. The respondent thus breached business ethics by acting with obvious unfairness towards other competitors who abided by the spirit of fair competition. These acts by the respondent constituted "obviously unfair acts" capable of "affecting the trading order" as prohibited by Article 24 of the Law. 3. The respondent violated Article 24 of the Law when it sought to win business opportunities by giving away data from a competitor's Internet site--"104 Job Bank"-- to trading counterparts in trade. After reviewing and considering the degree to which these acts affected the order of trade in the market, the anticipated illegitimate profit from such acts, the duration of the violations, and respondent's attitude after the violations, the Commission fined the respondent NT$100,000 under Article 41 of the Law. Appendix: Chan Ch'en International Co. Ltd.'s Uniform Invoice Number: 16754975 Summarized by Tseng Chiu-chen; Supervised by Lin Yu-ch'ing