Newsletter
EXECUTIVE YUAN OPPOSES INVOKING FTL IN OUTSIDE FOOD BAN
The Administrative Appeals Committee of the Executive Yuan made a new ruling in connection with the question of whether members of the public visiting amusement parks may take in food from outside to consume on the premises. The committee questioned the legal basis of a decision rendered by the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) against such ban. The FTC had relied on the general rule under Article 24 of the Fair Trade Law (FTL)—"no enterprise shall other-wise engage in deceptive or obviously unfair conduct sufficient to affect the orderly conduct of trade" to determine that the park operator's ban on outside food infringed consumers' rights.
The committee stated that although there were grounds for believing that in the case under consideration, the park operator had infringed consumers' rights, it was not appropriate to in-voke the FTL, which regulates competition be-tween businesses, to deal with a consumer dis-pute concerning the protection of consumer rights. Accordingly, the committee allowed the park operator's appeal, and ordered the FTC to review the case and make a different disposition in accordance with the law.
Because this case involves a conflict between the protection of consumer rights on the one hand and businesses' freedom of commercial opera-tion on the other, the Executive Yuan's ruling may set an important precedent for similar con-sumer disputes in Taiwan in the future. It may also influence the FTC's position in drafting its Principles for Handling Cases Involving Prohi-bitions on the Taking onto Business Premises of Food Purchased Elsewhere.