United Highway Bus Corp. made false and misleading presentations in an advertisement with respect to discount ticket prices in violation of Article 21 of the Fair Trade Law
Case:
United Highway Bus Corp. made false and misleading presentations in an advertisement with respect to discount ticket prices in violation of Article 21 of the Fair Trade Law
Key Words:
passenger transportation, discount ticket prices, exclusion period
Reference:
Fair Trade Commission Decision of July 26, 2001 (the 507th Commissioners' Meeting); Disposition (90) Kung Ch'u Tzu No. 098
Industry:
Land Transportation Industry (5331)
Relevant Law:
Article 21 of the Fair Trade Law
Summary:
1. An advertisement with respect to discount ticket prices by United Highway Bus Corp. made the following claim "Taipei (Minchuan West Road station) --Taichung (Chaoma station) for NT$200, '365 Days, Year-Round, Across-The-Board.'" However, when the complainant was purchasing a ticket to Taichung at the Minchuan West Road station on 23 July 2000, United Highway Bus Corp. indicated that a one-way ticket was NT$250, and a round-trip ticket was NT$450 since it was a weekend. This was obviously inconsistent with the claim "NT$200, '365 Days, Year-Round, Across-The-Board'" in the advertisement. 2. The Fair Trade Commission investigated United Highway Bus Corp. by telephone and on site at its Minchuan West Road station and found that the ticket price for "Taipei (Minchuan West Road station) -- Taichung (Chaoma station)" was NT$200 on weekdays from 10:00 Monday to 10:00 Friday, and NT$250 on national holidays and weekends; and that the price of the tickets was not NT$200 year round. United Highway Bus Corp. argued that the back of the advertisement had the wording: "Discount Period Expanded, Weekdays From 10:00 Monday To 10:00 Friday, Tour Island For 200/300, Excluding Days Immediately Preceding or Following National Holidays and Weekends" and hence that it had already indicated in writing that the claim "NT$200, '365 Days, Year-Round, Across-The-Board" was not effective during the exclusion period. However, an overall observation of the front and back of the advertisement revealed that the service hotlines for all of the United Highway Bus Corp.'s stations island-wide were recorded in the upper portion of the back of the advertisement, and that the words "Discount Period Expanded, Weekdays From 10:00 Monday To 10:00 Friday, Tour Whole Island For 200/300, Excluding Days Immediately Preceding Or Following National Holidays and Weekends" was recorded in color in a distinctive script on the lower portion of the back of the advertisement. Therefore, the discount price period represented by the words "From 10:00 Monday to 10:00 Friday" and "Excluding Days Immediately Preceding or Following National Holidays and Weekends" obviously referred to the "Tour Island For 200/300." It is not likely for a person to make the association that these words constituted an exclusionary proviso for the claim "NT$200, '365 Days, Year-Round, Across-The-Board" recorded on the back of the advertisement. Given that the front of the advertisement emphasized the words "365 Days," "Year Round," and "Across-the-Board," printed distinctively in reverse white, and the figure "NT$200," depicted in large script, was positioned next to the claim "Across-the-Board," the advertisement was a definite presentation, and it featured no exclusionary proviso. The advertisement therefore constituted a false and misleading presentation in violation of Article 21(3), in which Article 21(1) applies mutatis mutandis. 3. After weighing United Highway Bus Corp.'s motives and objectives for its conduct, the improper benefits it anticipated, the degree and duration of impact on the trading order, the benefits it obtained, the scale of its enterprise, the status of its operations and its market share, the record of past offenses, and its attitude subsequent to the offenses, the Fair Trade Commission ordered United Highway Bus Corp. to immediately cease the unlawful acts in question and imposed an administrative fine of NT$200,000 on United Highway Bus Corp. pursuant to the fore part of Article 41 of the Fair Trade Law. Appendix: United Highway Bus Corp.'s Uniform Invoice Number: 23471299 Summarized by Tsai, Shueh-Chiu; Supervised by Yeh, Ning