Save and Safe Tech. Co., Ltd. made false and misleading representation as to the value of air ticket prize in the advertisement of lucky draw and violated Article 21, Paragraph 1 of the Fair Trade Law

Chinese Taipei

Case:

Key Words:

Prize, air ticket, false advertisement

Reference:

Fair Trade Commission Decision of March 30, 2006 (the 751st Commissioners' Meeting), Disposition Kung Ch’u Tzu No. 095031

Industry:

Building Maintenance and Upholstery (4100)

Relevant Laws:

Article 21 of the Fair Trade Law

Summary:

1. A complaint was made by the public against the website www.twdeco.com.tw posted by Save and Safe Tech. Co., Ltd.. The website hold a prize drawing for “twdeco’s fifth anniversary celebration and year-end sale, prizes of traveling around the world and big cash”, and announced that one of the prizes was a roundtrip air ticket to Hong Kong worth at NT$ 14,000 market price. However, the ticket price for the said air ticket was only NT$ 4,950 and thus the announcement was suspected of violating the Fair Trade Law.
2. Upon investigation, the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) found that Save and Safe Tech. Co., Ltd. announced in the website advertisement that the prize for the prize drawing was a roundtrip air ticket to Hong Kong worth at NT$ 14,000. Save and Safe argued that the Company has indicated the market price of a roundtrip air ticket to Hong Kong was NT$ 14,000 because Cathay Pacific Airlines has posted in its website that the roundtrip air ticket between Taipei and Hong Kong was NT$ 13,406 at the time that the prize drawing promotion at issue was hold. However, it is found that the price of Taipei and Hong Kong roundtrip air ticket varied with the terms of use. The evidence provided by the party involved Ezfly Travel Agent Corp. showed that two kinds of air tickets were provided at that time, one priced at NT$ 4,950 and the other one was priced at NT$ 12,118, both tickets were different in their terms of use. The former air ticket was valid for three months, non-returnable, no alteration of flight and non-transferable, whereas the latter was valid for 12 months, returnable but no alteration of flight and non-transferable. In addition, the passengers of the former air tickets can only take specific flights (flights CX401 19:10-21:00, CX451 20:00-21:45 Taipei to Hong Kong, any flights before 2:00 p.m. from Hong Kong to Taipei everyday); such restriction did not apply to the latter air ticket.
3. Grounds of Disposition: the Hong Kong roundtrip air ticket given by Save and Safe Tech. Co., Ltd. in its prize drawing was valid for three months, non-returnable, no alteration of flight and non-transferable. In addition, the air ticket also had flight restriction and the market price was only NT$ 4,950. The aforementioned terms of use and actual value were recorded clearly in the voucher of air ticket at issue. Furthermore, Save and Safe Tech. Co., Ltd. confessed that it had paid NT$ 4,950 cash to Ezfly Travel Agent Corp. for the ticket, verifiable by the receipt of air ticket purchase. It is obvious that Save and Safe Tech. Co., Ltd. clearly knew the actual value of the air ticket prize at issue but announced in the advertisement that the market value of the air ticket prize was NT$ 14,000, significantly different from the actual value of the said air ticket. The announcement was sufficient to mislead the trading counterparts into believing that the air ticket prize was air ticket that has better terms of use and more expensive, and hence making erroneous trading decisions. The advertisement at issue was obviously false and misleading, thus has violated the provision of Article 21, Paragraph 1 of the Fair Trade Law. Therefore, Save and Safe Tech. Co., Ltd. is ordered to cease the aforementioned unlawful acts immediately and a fine of NT$ 260,000 is imposed according to the anterior paragraph of Article 41 of the Fair Trade Law.

Summarized by Hung, Hsuan;
Supervised by Chiang, Kou-Lun

Appendix:
Save and Safe Tech. Co., Ltd.’s Uniform Invoice Number: 16653287