Golden Times Construction Ltd. was complained for concealing material trading information about planned route of the High Speed Railway ["HSR"] in violation of the Fair Trade Law
Chinese Taipei
Case:
Golden Times Construction Ltd. was complained for concealing material trading information about planned route of the High Speed Railway ["HSR"] in violation of the Fair Trade Law
Key Words:
false advertising, conceal, trading information.
Reference:
Fair Trade Commission Decision of October 18, 1995 (the 210th Commission Meeting); Disposition (84) Kung Ch'u Tzu No. 147
Industry:
Construction and Development Industry (6811)
Relevant Laws:
Article 24 of the Fair Trade Law
Summary:
1. In April 1993, the Golden Times Construction Ltd. [hereinafter referred to as "Golden Times"] started the construction of a community residential complex "Taipei Ch'ing P'u City". Liu Chiao-nan, father of the owner of Golden Times, Liu Yieh-yen, in June 1993 made an inquiry of the Provisional Engineering Office of High Speed Rail under the Ministry of Transportation and Communications [hereafter as "the HSR Provisional Office"], and learned that the HSR would pass through the planned construction site. Nevertheless, Golden Times still placed untrue advertisements to market, the said community residential complex. In order to obtain an occupancy permit for the housing complex in question, the sanctioned party in August 1994 signed an undertaking with the Bureau of Public Works of Taoyuan county government to the effect that as soon as the route of the HSR was announced and confirmed, Golden Times would fully cooperate with the government by unconditionally accepting the latter's taking and would also inform potential buyers of this fact when promoting/marketing the said complex. However, the purchasers did not know that Golden Times concealed the aforementioned facts, misled purchasers to continue making construction payment and caused purchasers damages until they consulted with the HSR Provisional Office and the Bureau of Public Works of Taoyuan county government when they received from the Office of Land Administration of Luchu Township in Taoyuan a letter dated 18 November 1994 notifying them that the land on which their purchased housing rested was within the HSR right of way.
2. Article 24 of the Fair Trade Law provides that, "...an enterprise shall not conduct other deceptive or obviously unfair acts that are sufficient to affect trading order." The sanctioned party in this case in June 1993 made an inquiry of the HSR Provisional Office and was told specifically that the construction site in question was within the planned route of the HSR, and any development of that particular site should either be postponed or adjusted. The HSR Provisional Office even provided Golden Times routing charts for reference. On 23 November of the same year, the HSR Provisional Office notified the sanctioned party again, asking for the latter's cooperation to postpone its development plan on the site. Thereafter the Bureau of Public Works of Taoyuan county government on 18 December of the same year also sent the sanctioned party a letter informing that the particular site was within the HSR rights of road and recommending a postponement of the construction project. But the sanctioned party refused to take such advice based on reasons that the structure framework of the buildings had been completed and payments from the subscribers had been received. Since June 1993, the sanctioned party had been aware of the fact that the HSR would pass the site in question, but had been concealing it from the customers and continued receiving construction payments. Golden Times even hastened up the paperwork for transfer of surrounding the ownership in order to draw down on the housing loans applied for by the purchasers. The purchasers on the other hand never learned the fact that the sanctioned party had been concealing these facts until November or December of 1994. The sanctioned party's act of concealing important facts was deceptive and patently unfair, and adversely affected trading order. Therefore whether or not a settlement between the sanctioned party and the purchasers has been reached, or any other remedial measures have been taken, the fact that the Golden Times Co. has violated the provisions of the said article of this Law is beyond dispute.
Summarized by Lu, Li-na
Supervised by Wu, Ts'ui-feng
＊: For information of translation, click here
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