Wei Chuan Foods Corp (味全), a subsidiary of the Ting Hsin International Group (頂新集團), is set to pay at least NT$200 million (US$6.6 million) in compensation to consumers who bought products implicated in the latest cooking oil scare, the Taipei City Government’s Department of Legal Affairs said yesterday.
The announcement came after negotiations between Wei Chuan and the department, which also held talks with Dicos (德克士餐廳) and The Bread (布列德麵包) chains, city officials said.
All three firms are subsidiaries of Ting Hsin and have been implicated in using their parent firm’s tainted oil.
With headquarters in Taipei, they all fall within the jurisdiction of the city government’s Department of Legal Affairs.
“The companies will be required to return all sales revenue from tainted products into the hands of consumers,” department Chief Consumer Protection Officer Chen Hsin-Chen (陳信誠) said. “If consumer claims are less than total sales revenue, the firms will be required to donate the difference to the National Health Insurance System, government agencies concerned with product testing or private organizations concerned with consumer protection.”
He added that if consumer claims exceed the firms’ original sales revenue, the firms would still be required to make up the difference.
The compensation guidelines would apply to all products declared tainted by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, with 18 of Wei Chuan’s products included, along with three of Dicos’ products and one of The Bread’s, the department said.
Consumers who provide a receipt, proof of purchase or the original product would be compensated with four times the original purchase price plus NT$500, Chen said, adding that Wei Chuan has provided a sales revenue estimate of NT$200 million for the affected products over the past three years, but the official figure remains to be determined.
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