Hsing-lai Record Company was complained for false labeling of sound recording tapes

Chinese Taipei

Case:

Hsing-lai Record Company was complained for false labeling of sound recording tapes

Key Words:

false, untrue or misleading presentation or symbol

Reference:

Fair Trade Commission Decision of October 21, 1992 (the 55th Commission Meeting); Disposition (81) Kung Ch'u Tzu No. 037

Industry:

Sales of sound recording (8020)

Relevant Laws:

Article 21(1) of the Fair Trade Law

Summary:

1. The case originated from a complaint filed to the Fair Trade Commission alleging that the cassette music tapes of "Best-selling Mandarin pop songs", vols. 5, 7 and 9 published by Hsing-Lai Co. were labelled as follows, which were in violation of Article 21(1) of the Fair Trade Law: First was title of the song and the original singer of the song came immediately after the title. It did not make clear to general consumers that the songs recorded in these tapes were actually performed by people other than original signers, and instead causes persons to believe that all the songs are recordings made by their original vocalists.

Moreover, Hsing-lai Company printed the photos of the original singers on covers of these tapes. The company argued that such a labeling only aimed to familiarize consumers with those original singers, but the way the company labeled these tapes may very well cause persons to mistakenly believe the names listed behind the song titles are exactly those who made this recording.

2. With regard to what Hsing-lai Company argued that in order to distinguish its products from those recorded by original signers, it marked on the outer packaging a statement in Chinese indicating: "This album was especially re-produced in Singapore," this Commission found that a general look at the overall packaging could not help consumers realize the fact that these albums were recorded by people other than the original signers. Therefore, the labeling on the packaging still had the effect of misleading people and caused their mistakes regarding the content of the cassette music tapes as mentioned above.

3. In summary, the cassette music tapes published by Hsing-lai Company had song titles and names of original singers listed side by side, and had the photos of the original singers printed on the outer packaging. This is tantamount to false and misleading presentation and thus constitutes a violation of the provisions of Article 21(1) of the Fair Trade Law. Hsing-lai Company was ordered to recall the cassette music tapes of "Best-selling Mandarin pop songs" and to alter their packaging, or to mark on a conspicuous part of the packaging that these tapes are cover versions and not recorded by original signers..

　

Summarized by Chiang, Kuo-luen.
Supervised by Hsu, Chao-ying.

Appendix:
Hsing-lai's Uniform Invoice No.: 31343277

＊: For information of translation, click here

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