The Consumers’ Foundation is to file a consumer class-action lawsuit against four manufacturers whose allegedly adulterated cooking oil products have hurt the nation’s food industry since their discovery in September, and is inviting anyone who purchased or consumed food products tainted with the problematic oils to join the suit.
“The impact of the spate of cooking oil scandals over the past few months is widespread. They have affected not only consumers, but also food factories, restaurants and night market vendors nationwide,” Consumers’ Foundation chairman Alan Lu (陸雲) told a press conference in Taipei yesterday.
Lu said the group is more than willing to take on the case entrusted to it by the Executive Yuan’s Department of Consumer Protection because it is often consumers rather than businesses who require help seeking compensation.
Foundation vice chairman Yu Kai-hsiung (游開雄) said the lawsuit will be filed primarily against the four oil producers at the center of the recent oil scares: Chang Guann Co (強冠企業), Ting Hsin Oil and Fat Industrial Co (頂新製油實業), Cheng I Food Co (正義股份) and Beei Hae Oil and Fats Co (北海油脂).
“Their allegedly adulterated oil products have affected more than 500 smaller food companies and stores, as well as more than 1,000 kinds of food items,” Yu said.
Yu said that since many of the problematic products were meant for household use, both people who purchased the items and family members who consumed them are welcome to join the suit. Consumers who were refunded for the suspect products may also participate, so long as they did not sign a statement of settlement with the sellers, Yu added.
“People who intend to join the lawsuit can apply with any of the foundation’s branches across the nation starting from Monday until Jan. 5 next year. All applicants will be required to submit receipts to prove they bought the products in question,” Yu said.
Department of Consumer Protection Director-General Liu Ching-fang (劉清芳) said she expects the suit to be the largest she has ever seen in all her years with the department.
“It is unimaginable how much time and manpower will be devoted to this case. I am impressed by the foundation’s willingness to accept this challenging task,” Liu said.
All litigation fees and costs will be paid from the government’s food safety fund, which is expected to be established in January, she added.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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