Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators yesterday urged the government to investigate Chinese e-commerce platform Taobao for allegedly engaging in illegal business and advertising in Taiwan.
Taiwanese authorities had previously requested that Taobao cease operations on three separate occasions. However, the company recently put up advertisements in Taipei MRT stations and trains.
Legislators Michelle Lin (林楚茵) and Puma Shen (沈伯洋), along with the Taiwan Economic Democracy Union, held a news conference yesterday to ask the Ministry of Digital Affairs and other agencies to fine Taobao, investigate its actions and protect consumers.
Photo: Ou Yu-hsiang, Taipei Times
Taobao has strong links to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Lin said, accusing the company of building a customer base by enticing shoppers with free shipping and low prices before using harvested data to outcompete local companies.
The EU and US are formulating their own tariff policies as they also deal with similar issues, she added.
As this is a cross-agency issue, the digital ministry should collaborate with the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the Ministry of Finance and prosecutors, she said.
Shen said that Taobao first expanded operations to Taiwan in 2009 under a Singaporean subsidiary, before the Department of Investment Review forced it to divest due to concealing its origins.
Taobao also tried to operate under a Hong Kong business registration in 2013 and a British one in 2019, but both times was ordered by the department to withdraw from the country, Shen added.
It is currently operating in Taiwan through its “Tmall” brand, he added.
Taobao’s app collects consumer data, which its engineers can provide to the CCP under China’s National Intelligence Law, Shen said.
Authorities should inform the public about the illegal status of Taobao’s operations and explain potential risks to data security, he added.
Taobao’s ads contravene Article 34 of the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (台灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), and the Taipei MRT should be fined between NT$100,000 and NT$500,000 for displaying them, union convener Lai Chung-chiang (賴中強) said.
Beyond its illegal ads, Taobao also maintains a Taiwan fan group account on Facebook, as well as a customer service hotline for local customers, suggesting it is engaging in illegal business activities, Lai said.
That would contravene Article 40 of the same law, which carries a maximum penalty of three years in prison, he added, calling for prosecutors to investigate.
This case is under the jurisdiction of the digital ministry, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said in an interview later yesterday, calling on the ministry to investigate the matter.
Taobao also made a statement, saying that its Hong Kong-based subsidiary is operating within Taiwanese law and that it was approved to operate in 2018.
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