The Consumers' Foundation (
"The foundation will not take back its application until Eleeza Cosmetics changes the Alexander brand name, or else promises to acknowledge all existing members' rights," foundation chairman Cheng Jen-hung (程仁宏) said yesterday.
The company would also have to give consumers the option of either continuing to use their services or asking for refunds, he said.
Taipei-based Eleeza Cosmetics (
The foundation urged the new buyer to acknowledge the rights of existing members if the company were to continue using the Alexander brand name, as consumers will have to continue their credit card payments once one of Alexander's outlets reopens under the existing brand name.
Hsieh Tien-jen (謝天仁), the foundation's vice chairman, said the decision to file for bankruptcy was prompted by the Youth Camp Health Group (佳姿健康集團) incident two years ago.
Youth Camp Health Group, which announced the temporary closure of its operations in June 2005, reopened only one outlet on Nanjing W Road in Taipei later that year, forcing all members, even those who could not travel to the outlet, to continue making credit card payments, Hsieh said.
"Our goal is to prevent the same problem from happening again," he said.
Financial Supervisory Commission said yesterday that Alexander was involved in nearly 10,000 credit card charges disputes with its clients as of Jan. 7, amounting to NT$310 million (US$9.54 million).
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last