The Ministry of Digital Development should look into Shopee Taiwan Private Ltd for increasing its shipping prices while benefiting from clauses in its liability disclaimer and terms of service, the Economic Democratic Union said yesterday.
Economic Democratic Union researcher Ou Hsu-shao (歐栩韶) said that the think tank in March pored over Shopee Taiwan’s terms of service, with Article 22 sparking concern.
The article says that Shopee “does not guarantee that this service, the Web site and its functions can be saved or loaded, nor does it guarantee accessibility via the Internet, for real-time provision of services.”
Photo: Tien Yu-hua, Taipei Times
It “does not guarantee the reliability and accuracy of this service, nor guarantee that it will be entirely error-free,” it says. The company “cannot guarantee that the Web site or its services will be free of viruses or other malicious coding.”
Article 22-3 says that users “recognize that, to the greatest extent of the law ... they are accept all responsibility for such risks when using the service or the Web site.”
The clauses contravene Item 13 of the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ Regulations on Contents for Standard Contracts for Internet-based Transaction (零售業等網路交易定型化契約應記載及不得記載事項), Ou said, adding that the Economic Democratic Union has notified authorities of the issue.
Item 13 says that business operators must ensure that their computer systems for transactions with consumers have security that meets generally reasonable expectations.
The Taipei Office of Commerce on March 28 sent Shopee Taiwan an official notice that said its terms of service contravened item 13 and citing provisions of the Consumer Protection Act (消費者保護法) ordered the company to prepare a report on how it would ensure that improvements are implemented.
However, while Shopee amended Article 22-1 of its terms of service to say it ensures that its system meets the reasonable safety standard, it still has to change wording elsewhere in the article, Ou said.
The authorities should determine whether articles 22-2 and 22-3 comply with the regulations, she said, adding that Minister of Digital Development Audrey Tang (唐鳳) should act.
The ministry said that it has ordered Shopee Taiwan to issue a response and is looking into the legality of its disclaimer clauses.
If the clauses are found to be illegal, the company would be required to change the wording, it said.
Shopee said that it would comply with instructions from the government.
GREAT POWER COMPETITION: Beijing views its military cooperation with Russia as a means to push back against the joint power of the US and its allies, an expert said A recent Sino-Russian joint air patrol conducted over the waters off Alaska was designed to counter the US military in the Pacific and demonstrated improved interoperability between Beijing’s and Moscow’s forces, a national security expert said. National Defense University associate professor Chen Yu-chen (陳育正) made the comment in an article published on Wednesday on the Web site of the Journal of the Chinese Communist Studies Institute. China and Russia sent four strategic bombers to patrol the waters of the northern Pacific and Bering Strait near Alaska in late June, one month after the two nations sent a combined flotilla of four warships
THE TOUR: Pope Francis has gone on a 12-day visit to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore. He was also invited to Taiwan The government yesterday welcomed Pope Francis to the Asia-Pacific region and said it would continue extending an invitation for him to visit Taiwan. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs made the remarks as Pope Francis began a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific on Monday. He is to travel about 33,000km by air to visit Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore, and would arrive back in Rome on Friday next week. It would be the longest and most challenging trip of Francis’ 11-year papacy. The 87-year-old has had health issues over the past few years and now uses a wheelchair. The ministry said
‘LEADERS’: The report highlighted C.C. Wei’s management at TSMC, Lisa Su’s decisionmaking at AMD and the ‘rock star’ status of Nvidia’s Huang Time magazine on Thursday announced its list of the 100 most influential people in artificial intelligence (AI), which included Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家), Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) and AMD chair and CEO Lisa Su (蘇姿丰). The list is divided into four categories: Leaders, Innovators, Shapers and Thinkers. Wei and Huang were named in the Leaders category. Other notable figures in the Leaders category included Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Meta CEO and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. Su was listed in the Innovators category. Time highlighted Wei’s
EVERYONE’S ISSUE: Kim said that during a visit to Taiwan, she asked what would happen if China attacked, and was told that the global economy would shut down Taiwan is critical to the global economy, and its defense is a “here and now” issue, US Representative Young Kim said during a roundtable talk on Taiwan-US relations on Friday. Kim, who serves on the US House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee, held a roundtable talk titled “Global Ties, Local Impact: Why Taiwan Matters for California,” at Santiago Canyon College in Orange County, California. “Despite its small size and long distance from us, Taiwan’s cultural and economic importance is felt across our communities,” Kim said during her opening remarks. Stanford University researcher and lecturer Lanhee Chen (陳仁宜), lawyer Lin Ching-chi
RSS