Date: 14 August 2025

【Volume 155】

The Taiwan Fair Trade Commission (“FTC”) rendered a decision against Vichy Co., Ltd. and three online shopping platform operators, Momo.com (Momo Shopping), PChome Online (PChome 24h Shopping), and Yahoo! Taiwan (Yahoo! Shopping), for publishing advertisements containing patent claims inconsistent with the facts, in violation of Article 21, Paragraph 1 of the Fair Trade Act¹. The FTC imposed administrative fines of NT$150,000 on Vichy, NT$100,000 on Momo.com, and NT$50,000 on PChome Online. Yahoo! Taiwan was exempted from a fine but was issued a warning.

Case Background

Vichy is the owner of the YOMIX brand, and the product at issue was the “YOMIX Detachable Plug Power Bank”. Advertisements on each platform contained wording such as “Detachable AC plug transforms into wall charger”, “Taiwan’s only patent”, and “Exclusive detachable magnetic design”, which could cause the general consumer to believe that the product had obtained Taiwan’s only patent for a detachable power bank and charger.

Decision of the FTC

The FTC’s investigation revealed that, at the time the advertisements were published, the product had not yet obtained any patents, and other businesses in Taiwan already held valid patents for detachable charger power banks. Accordingly, the above claims were false and misleading, sufficient to affect trading decisions, and constituted “false or misleading representations” as referred to in Article 21, Paragraph 1 of the Fair Trade Act.

Screenshot of the YOMIX Power Bank advertisement page (Source: Fair Trade Commission)