Recent Developments of False or Misleading Advertising in the Taiwanese Fair Trade Act

Abstract

公平交易法全面修正之法案業於二○一五年二月四日由總統公布生效，其中對於不實廣告定義亦有適當之調整。近年來「廣告競爭法」之變動所圍繞的核心問題，乃為薦證廣告之規範及網際網路發展對於廣告行為之影響。有鑑於此，本文擬就新法之修訂以及上述廣告法制之最新發展加以論述，並特別說明社群網站之口碑行銷在何種情況下構成薦證廣告，以及當此等推文者與廣告主間具有非消費者所以合理預期之實質關聯時，該等利益關係即應被揭露之最新規範。

The newly and widely amended Fair Trade Act (FTA) was promulgated by the President on February 4, 2015. Under this Amendment, the meaning of the false or misleading advertising was expanded to include that no enterprise shall make or use false or misleading representations or symbols on goods or in advertisements, or in any other way make it known to the public concerning the matter that is relevant to goods/services and is sufficient to affect trading decisions. And the most important issue relating to advertisement in the past few years in Taiwan has been the use of endorsements and testimonials in advertising especially on the Internet. This article intends to deal with the latest developments of advertising regulations in the FTA. It discusses what constitutes illegal endorsements and testimonials when the message is conveyed by bloggers or other word-of-mouth marketers, and emphasizes that all the material connections between advertisers and endorsers which consumers would not expect must be disclosed.