Kuang Chuan Dairy Co., Ltd. was for publication of an advertisement claiming “Kuang Chuan has been awarded a gold medal for the world's top honors in dairy products three years straight,” in violation of the Fair Trade Law

Chinese Taipei


Case:

Kuang Chuan Dairy Co., Ltd. was for publication of an advertisement claiming “Kuang Chuan has been awarded a gold medal for the world's top honors in dairy products three years straight,” in violation of the Fair Trade Law

Key Words:

false and misleading, gold medal, dairy products

Reference:

Fair Trade Commission Decision of March 20, 2003 (the 593rd Commissioners' Meeting); Disposition (92) Kung Ch'u Tzu No. 092045

Industry:

Dairy Product Manufacturing (0820)

Relevant Law:

Article 21 of the Fair Trade Law

Summary:

1. This case originated from a citizen's letter of complaint alleging that Kuang Chuan Dairy Co., Ltd. (Kuang Chuan) published an advertisement in the 28 September 2002 Commercial Times stating that its “Superior Quality Fresh Milk” and its "entire milk line" had won the World Food Association Grand Gold Medal for Quality, whereas that year only the respondent's “Kuang Chuan Milk” had won only an ordinary gold medal, a fact which seemed to be misleading to consumers.

2. Investigation showed that the respondent had published an advertisement on page 17 of the Commercial Times stating, “Watch out for bogus dairy products that can harm your health,” which also added that “Kuang Chuan dairy products have won the world's top gold medal for three straight years.” The respondent's products which won the “Grand Gold Medal,” however, only included its yogurt products in 1999 and its “Superior Quality” line of low-fat milk products in 2000, so that it had not in fact won the “world's top gold medal” for “three consecutive years.”

3. The respondent claimed that the “2002 world grand gold medal for milk” was an award given by the World Food Association for “highest honors three years in a row”, whereas the original text of the award used the phrases “awarded for high quality” and “during three consecutive years.” Given that the respondent had represented to the public the claim that what the World Food Association listed as “GRO=Grand Gold Medal” was [in Chinese translation] its “grand gold medal,” and what it listed as the “OR=Gold Medal” was [in Chinese translation] its “gold medal.” The respondent should have known that “highest honors during three consecutive years” and “grand gold medal” did not mean the same thing, and its claim of having been awarded the highest honors during three consecutive years was obviously not in conformance with the facts. Such a claim was sufficient to bring about a misperception or a mistaken decision on the part of its trading counterparts, and was deemed to be a false and misleading presentation in violation of Article 21(1) of the Fair Trade Law. The respondent was ordered to immediately cease its aforesaid unlawful conduct.

Appendix:
Kuang Chuan Dairy Co., Ltd.’s Uniform Invoice Number: 04313172

Summarized by Ho, Yin-Ju; Supervised by Yeh, Tien-Fu