Amendments have been made to the Consumer Protection Act (消費者保護法) to prohibit businesses from making consumers give up the 30-day refund period by using a standardized contract and increasing the amount consumers are entitled to claim due to injuries caused by intentional misconduct.
The existing law grants “a reasonable period of no less than 30 days to consumers for them to review the contents of all terms and conditions” before a standard contract can be entered into between a consumer and a business. That has been amended to prohibit businesses from making consumers relinquish the 30-day refund period by way of a contract.
The rule that grants consumers who undertake in-home purchases a seven-day cooling-off period without the need to clarify the reason or shoulder any cost has been amended to allow the Executive Yuan to list certain products that are exceptions.
The Consumer Protection Committee said that the Executive Yuan would take into account the properties of the products being sold and the regulations of the EU and other developed countries when issuing public notices, in which products such as seafood, fruit, music and films are likely to be listed.
The act has also been amended to state that a consumer, in a litigation brought in accordance with the act, may now claim for punitive damages up to five times — rather than three times — the amount of actual damage caused as the result of injuries caused by a willful act of misconduct by a business operator.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Tien Chiu-chin (田秋堇) said that the amended law has removed “unreasonable qualifications” set for the consumer protection groups to be able to take legal action for damage caused to consumers.
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