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Agency announces year's top consumer news stories

The Consumer Protection Commission yesterday revealed the top-10 consumer news stories of the year in the hope of using them as guidelines to help improve policies and highlight the main concerns of consumers.

Commission secretary-general Yang Mei-ling (楊美鈴) said that the top-10 list indicated the general public's main concerns and could help the commission to regulate various health and sanitation departments.

It also helps the commission target potential problems in the future, Yang said.

Poisonous products seemed to be a trend this year, filling the top three spots, with cases involving cyanide put into beverages, malachite green found in bass and dioxin in milk, commission chair Wu Rong-i (吳榮義) said.

Wu is also vice premier.

Cyanide substances that were intentionally added to an energy drink product in May killed one person.

The commission automatically called for the product to be taken off the shelves and urged the Department of Health to conduct investigations as quickly as possible, Wu said.

The discovery of carcinogenic malachite green in freshwater bass also put the public's health at risk, Wu said. In the wake of the incident, the commission pushed for draft regulations on the production and inspection of agricultural products to be passed, he added.

The case of dioxin discovered in milk surfaced after cows ate some toxic grass, Wu said.

The commission has since urged health and sanitation departments to conduct more careful inspections of farm grass and milk products, he said.

The recent spate of accidents on the Taiwan Railway also made the list. Commission officials said that the railway canceled handling fees charged for buying and exchanging tickets online after suggestions made by the commission.

Hazardous bite-sized jello treats also made the list when several children choked and suffocated after swallowing them whole. The commission has called for production of 3.1cm diameter jello sweets to be stopped, Wu said.

With more people buying products over the Internet, Wu said that protecting credit card and personal information has become a top-10 issue. To protect consumer rights, the commission issued guidelines calling for banks to carry the responsibility when consumer information is revealed or hacked, Wu said.

Consumers must also be aware of "zero interest" payment commercials since the "no interest fee" is often discrepantly added as a handling fee, Wu said.

The top 10 were chosen through an online vote conducted by the commission from Nov. 1 to Nov. 10. Some 24,000 people voted.
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