Zhu Zhu Technology Co., Ltd.
1352nd Commissioners' Meeting (2017)
Case:
Zhu Zhu Technology violated the Fair Trade Law for taking information from rental home service websites to use as the content of it app
Keyword(s):
Mobile device app, online platform, plagiarism
Reference:
Fair Trade Commission Decision of October 2, 2017 (the 1352nd Commissioners' Meeting); Disposition Kung Ch'u Tzu No. 106084
Industry:
Data Processing, Hosting and Related Activities (6312)
Relevant Law(s):
Article 25 of the Fair Trade Law
Summary:
- The operator of 591.com, a real estate website, ADDCN Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as the complainant) discovered Zhu Zhu Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Zhu Zhu Technology) had taken rental home information for 591.com and used it as the content of the "Zhu Zhu Fast Rental Home Service" cell phone app for users to make integrated queries. The complainant thought Zhu Zhu Technology had violated Article 25 of the Fair Trade Law by taking information from its rental home service website without acquiring its consent and using the information as the content of the "Zhu Zhu Fast Rental Home Service" app without disclosing the source website and, as a result, users could directly contact 591.com members who had delegated the complainant to post advertisements for their rental homes without visiting 591.com while Zhu Zhu Technology also marketed the "Rental Home Radar" notification service to collect membership fees from information browsers. The conduct of Zhu Zhu Technology was in violation of Article 25 of the Fair Trade Law.
- Findings of the FTC after investigation:
Without acquiring the consent of the complainant, Zhu Zhu Technology used "web crawler" techniques to take rental home information from 591.com and applied it as the content of its Zhu Zhu Fast Rental Home Service app to attract users to download the app and pay for its Rental Home Radar service as well as to engage in commercial transaction by selling advertising spots to advertising service operators to make a profit. It was plagiarism of website information that other had invested a considerable amount of effort to establish. By using such information as the content of its own website or database to increase the opportunity of business transaction, Zhu Zhu Technology exploited the achievements of others. The conduct of Zhu Zhu Technology not only reduced the number of visits paid to 591.com and exploited the effort the complainant had put in to build the website and attract rental home seekers, but also decreased the source of customers for the rental home advertisements posted on 591.com and the value of the advertising spots on 591.com. Plus, rental home websites had the characteristic of two-sided market. The damages the complainant suffered were beyond the static result created by the conduct of Zhu Zhu Technology. Also to be taken into consideration were long-term dynamic effects such as reduction of the source of customers for the rental homes posted on 591.com due to decrease of visits paid by rental home seekers to the website, depreciation of value of the advertising spots on 591.com as well as decline in rental home seekers' interest to visit the website and homeowners' interest to post advertisements on the website.
- Grounds for disposition:
The practice of Zhu Zhu Technology had constituted obviously unfair conduct able to affect trading order in violation of Article 25 of the Fair Trade Law. After assessing the impact of the company's conduct on trading order, the duration of the unlawful act, the profit gained from the unlawful act, the amount of capital and market status of the offender, the violation being the first time, the company's cooperativeness throughout the investigation and the evidence provided, the FTC imposed an administrative fine of NT$50,000 on the company and also ordered it to immediately cease the unlawful act in accordance with the first section of Article 42 of the Fair Trade Law.
Appendix:
Zhu Zhu Technology Co., Ltd.'s Uniform Invoice Number: 60200354
Summarized by: Lin, Hsueh-Liang ; Supervised by: Liao, Hsien-Chou