萬國法律事務所

The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) recently imposed a NT$ 1 million fine on a high school text book publisher. According to the FTC, the publisher offered milk trials to a high school teacher in exchange for the school’s decision to select its text book publications. This action violated Article 24 of the Fair Trade Law (FTL). Article 24 of the FTL stipulates that no enterprise shall engage in any deceptive or obviously unfair conduct that is able to affect the trading order.

The FTC released guidelines regarding sales of text books to Elementary and High Schools last year. These guidelines warn that any monetary, merchandise, or other benefit offered for the purpose of inducing an Elementary or High School to select specific text book publications may violate Article 24 of the FTL.

Moreover, an official of the Ministry of Education stated that teachers who have the authority to select text book for the school are strictly prohibited from receiving gifts from publishers.

The publisher stated that the milk trials were just gifts from the milk producer to the publisher’s employees. It was a normal social etiquette for the sales persons of the publisher to give small gifts to any teacher they met with. The publisher denied that the gifts had anything to do with the selection of text books and stated that it would appeal the NT$ 1 million fine.