萬國法律事務所

A new amendment to Taiwan’s Personal Information Protection Act, which came into force on October 1, 2012, establishes clear maximum and minimum limits on the amount of compensation that may be claimed per person when the victim cannot establish a prima facie case of the actual damages he or she has suffered due to a leakage of his or her personal information.

According to Article 28 (regulating government agencies) and Article 29 (regulating non-government agencies) of the Act, the total amount of compensation for damages shall be no less than NT$ 500 but no more than NT$ 20,000 for each case per person where the victim may not or cannot provide evidence of the actual amount of damages suffered. Both property and non-property damages are subject to compensation payments under these two Articles, and thus are subject to the same limitation.

These limits are expected to provide victims of personal information leakages who are unable to provide evidence of actual damage amounts a means to obtain compensation. However, a person seeking compensation for damages that surpass the NT$ 20,000 limit, he or she must be able to show the amount of damages suffered.

This new amendment generally applies to all government agencies as well as all sectors of private business. Although different consequences may occur when leakages occur under different agencies or sectors, the current Act does not provide different policies for dealing with such varying situations.