A consumers’ protection group yesterday cautiously endorsed the Changhua District Court’s ruling on Tuesday ordering Ting Hsin Oil and Fat Industrial Co (頂新製油實業) to pay students at four schools NT$10.23 million (US$336,901) in compensation in a tainted oil scandal.
The court ruled against the company in the class-action lawsuit filed by the Consumers’ Protection Association of Taiwan and ordered it to pay each of the 341 students whose health was affected by the tainted oil NT$30,000.
The association filed the class-action suit against Ting Hsin in 2015, after scandal erupted surrounding the company’s oil products in 2013 and 2014.
Photo: Wang Jung-hsiang, Taipei Times
The association’s legal team listed 39 schools and 10,650 students as plaintiffs seeking compensation for damages.
Although the court only recognized four out of the 39 schools as victims of Ting Hsin’s tainted oil products, association officials still issued a cautiously optimistic statement welcoming the verdict.
“Althought not all schools were included and the compensation is far less than our request for NT$90,000 per student, we still welcome the district court’s decision, as the case could serve as a warning against unscrupulous companies,” the statement said.
Association officials said they would examine the ruling in detail before deciding whether to appeal.
The plaintiffs awarded compensation were two elementary schools in Kaohsiung, an elementary school in Tainan and a kindergarten in Hsinchu County.
The association’s lawyers withdrew their case for the other schools after lunch programs at those schools were found to use margarine based on vegetable oils, which had not been mixed with Ting Hsin’s tainted oils.
Former Ting Hsin Oil and Fat Industrial and Wei Chuan Foods Corp (味全食品) chairman Wei Ying-chung (魏應充) began serving a two-year prison sentence last month, after he was found guilty of fraud in the scandal.
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