Complaint against Yung Chi Paint & Varnish Mfg. Co., Ltd. for making false representation on the passive fire protection material “Huo Pa F-100” and its advertisement, in violation of the Fair Trade Law

Chinese Taipei

Case:

Key Words:

Passive fire protection materials, U.S. UL testing standard

Reference:

Fair Trade Commission Decision of March 9, 2006 (the 748th Commissioners’ Meeting), Letter Kung Er Tzu No. 0950002013 of March 10, 2006

Industry:

Other Chemical Products Manufacturing (1890)

Relevant Laws:

Article 19, Subparagraph 3, Article 21, Paragraph 1 of the Fair Trade Law

Summary:

1. This case originated from a complaint letter made by Mao Yuan Industrial Co., Ltd., briefly stated as; Yung Chi Company publicly presented the U.S. UL exterior use testing report for its product “Huo Pa F-100” without a certification for exterior use. However, Yung Chi Company indicated in the product manual of “Huo Pa F-100” that the said product has passed UL-1709 exterior environmental testing and suitable for use in exterior environment. In addition, when the “Huo Pa F-100” petrifaction passive fire protection material originally passed the UL-1709 petrifaction fire protection testing, the thickness of its tested samples was found to be between 30~33 PCF. Nevertheless, Yung Chi Company has sold products “Hou Pa F-100” with thickness between 45.3~49.5 PCF to its trading counterparts. Furthermore, Yung Chi Company used the aforementioned improper means to dump passive fire protection materials at low prices, thus affected the market trading order of passive fire protection material and violated the Fair Trade Law.

2. The Fair Trade Commission’s investigation found that Yung Chi Company has applied testing and registration for “Hou Pa F-100” according to the U.S. UL1709 Standard. After passing the outdoor simulation of fire protection testing on February 16, 1994, the said product was registered as UL Design Number XR713 and in accordance with the UL1709 Standards, the material is suitable for use in interior or exterior environment. Furthermore, the “Hou Pa F-100” passive fire protection material has gone through regular and non-periodical factory inspections of UL’s “Follow-up Service” every year. The samples collected in inspections are sent to UL’s laboratory in the U.S. for testing and the testing results showed that the samples have conformed to the standards. Moreover, the report of passive fire protection experiments of the Material Laboratory of Taiwan Construction Research Institute enclosed by the complainant showed that the results are greater than “the smallest mean value and the smallest individual value” of the said product. The results are not different from the original testing result conducted by the US UL. With regard to the evidences given by the complainant that the accused has acquired great sales, it is still not substantiate to conclude that the accused has acquired the said sales through unlawful means. To sum up, it is still difficult to conclude that the accused Yung Chi Company has circumstances of violating the Fair Trade Law according to the available evidences.

Summarized by Lin, Hsiao-Hung;
Supervised by Lin, Gin-Lan

Appendix:
YUNG CHI PAINT & VARNISH MFG. CO., LTD.’s Uniform Invoice Number: 75137605