Violation of the Fair Trade Law by Kao K'un Construction Co., Ltd. for false advertising the pre-sale of the "Tung Cheng" housing project
Chinese Taipei
Case:
Violation of the Fair Trade Law by Kao K'un Construction Co., Ltd. for false advertising the pre-sale of the "Tung Cheng" housing project
Key Words:
real property, false advertising
Reference:
Fair Trade Commission Decision of September 23, 1998 (the 359th Commission Meeting), Disposition Ref. (87) Kung Ch'u Tzu No. 209
Industry:
Construction investment (6811)
Relevant Laws:
Article 21 of the Fair Trade Law
Summary:
The complaint is summarized as follows:
The pre-sale of the "Tung Cheng" housing project (the project) as invested in and constructed by Kao K'un Construction Co., Ltd. (the respondent) involves false advertising in that (1) the lawn and trees alongside the roads and pedestrian's brick path do not exist as advertised; (2) the single controlled entry to the community does not complied with the advertising--there are three entries to the community; (3) the 200-ping supermarket is not set up as advertised.
According to Article 21 of the Fair Trade Law (FTL), an enterprise shall not make, on goods or in advertisements relating thereto, any false, untrue or misleading presentations. If the enterprise induces its trading counterpart to transact business with itself by false advertisement thereby affecting such trading counterpart's rights and interests, the enterprise shall be found in violation of the said provision.
According to the illustration given in the advertisement and the photo of the construction model, there are lawns and trees alongside the roads in the community. In addition, the driveways are separated from pedestrian's roads. However, according to the on-site investigation, there are no lawns or trees alongside the paths or driveways in the community. Only cement ground was sighted. Furthermore, buildings are closely adjacent to each other. There are no paths for pedestrians. The respondent has obviously made false representation in this aspect in the pre-sale advertisement.
Regarding the single controlled entry as advertised, the on-site investigation shows there are two entries to the community other than the front gate and these two additional entries are not monitored. The safety of the residents in the community is thus placed in risk. The respondent obviously falsely represented this portion in the advertisement.
Regarding the supermarket as advertised, according to the on-site investigation, there is no such a supermarket. Furthermore, the space of Building F, Basement One in the community, which was originally planned to be used as the supermarket, is now leased and used as the factory and warehouse. According to the use permit and the construction blueprint of Building F, the basements of the building can only be used as a working station and no the other floors have space available for setting up a supermarket. In other words, even if the respondent is able to contract an enterprise to set up a supermarket, such an arrangement will still violate the law. It is clear that the respondent has obviously made false representations regarding the supermarket in the advertisement with knowledge that the space of Building F, Basement One, could not be used as business premises.
In conclusion, the respondent is found in violation of FTL Article 21(1) for making false, untrue and misleading representations in the advertisement for the pre-sale of the project.
Summarized by Chen, Pin-Chiu
Superviced by Pai, Yu-Chuang
Appendix:
Kao K'un Construction Co., Ltd.’s Uniform Invoice No.: 86557913