Suo-ta Communications Ltd. [hereinafter "Suo-ta] was complained for placing false advertisement and violated the Fair Trade Law

Chinese Taipei

Case:

Suo-ta Communications Ltd. [hereinafter "Suo-ta] was complained for placing false advertisement and violated the Fair Trade Law

Key Words:

CT-2, Telecommunications bureaus

Reference:

Fair Trade Commission Decision of 25 January 1995 (the 173rd Commission Meeting); Disposition (84) Kung Ch'u Tzu No. 023

Industry:

Communication services (7050)

Relevant Laws:

Article 21 of the Fair Trade Law

Summary:

1. Article 21(3) of the Fair Trade Law, in applying, mutatis mutandis, the provisions of Article 21(1) provides that an enterprise shall not in advertisements make any false, untrue or misleading presentation relating to the content of its service. Moreover, Article 2(i) of the Telecommunications Law provides: "Telecommunications means the use of wire or wireless to send, transmit or receive...telephones...and...sounds or communication with other characteristics." Therefore, only an enterprise operating the aforementioned telecommunications business for the use of the general public can be called as the "telecommunications enterprise", which is referred to in Article 2 (xi) of the same law. Furthermore, according to the provisions of Article 14 of the Telecommunication Law, public or private groups or individuals shall not operate telecommunications enterprises for city, village, or town [these three designations - city, village and town are all types of administrative districts] without first obtaining approval and license from the Ministry of Transportation and Communications [hereinafter MOTC]. The investigation shows that the business items for which Suo-ta has registered and obtained an approval are the "provision of wireless communications equipment and telephone equipment for the general public", not the provision of telecommunications services for the use of the general public. Thus, Suo-ta's advertisement stating that it obtained "the first legal business license permit for privately-run telecommunications bureau in the nation" was obviously false and misleading, and violated Article 21(3) of the Fair Trade Law.

2. Pursuant to the provisions of the Telecommunications Law, the Organization Statute of Directorate General of Telecommunications MOTC, and the General Rules for the Organization of District Telecommunications Management Bureaus under the DGT, for purposes of telecommunications operation, the MOTC established the DGT and a number of subordinate district telecommunications management bureaus. Under these management bureaus are top-grade, first-grade, second-grade, third-grade telecommunications sub-bureaus. The term "telecommunications bureau" is therefore the name of government agency set up by the MOTC in accordance with relevant laws. The business scope of a telecommunications bureau includes: (1) local telephony, (2) long distance telephony, (3) telegrams, and (4) other supervisory and regulatory operations. Currently, the scope of business of Suo-ta Communications Ltd. is limited to local CT-2 telephone service, yet the company used the term "telecommunications bureau" to describe itself implying that it was able to engage in all of the aforementioned telecommunications, supervisory and regulatory operations. This term [telecommunications bureau] was used in the advertisement it placed for soliciting franchise partners and promoting its services. Such an advertisement may cause persons to mistakenly think Suo-ta Ltd.'s scope of business is identical to that of telecommunications bureaus and was thus in violation of provisions of Article 21(3) of the Fair Trade Law which applies the provisions of paragraph 1 of the same article mutatis mutandis.

　

Summarized by Wang, Jung-ch'ing
Supervised by Kuo, Shu-chen; Pai Yu-chuang

Appendix:
Suo-ta communications Ltd. has been dissolved.

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