False advertising: Asus computer fined 200,000

An advertisement for the Asus tablet claimed that its graphics performance speed surpassed that of a competitor's product, and the specification comparison omitted items in which the other business was superior, resulting in an overall impression that the quality of the competitor's product was the result of a fair comparison. The Fair Trade Commission imposed a fine of NT$200,000.

The Fair Trade Commission said yesterday that an advertisement by Asus Computer Inc. claimed that the 2D and 3D graphics performance speeds of the ASUS Tablet were 1.1 times and 1.2 times faster than the acer Tablet, respectively.

According to a Fair Trade Commission investigation, Asus has admitted that results may differ depending on the testing software used, and that it is not the case that the ASUS Tablet is faster than the Acer Tablet in all respects. The advertisement did not specify which testing software was used, and its claim that the ASUS Tablet was superior to the competing product acer Tablet already constituted a false and misleading situation.

The Fair Trade Commission said that in Asus's comparative advertisement, it could have collected the competitor's specifications, yet it did not disclose weight or Bluetooth in the specification comparison table in the advertisement, only highlighting the items in which it was superior and omitting the items in which the other business was superior, resulting in an overall impression of an unfair comparative effect that was sufficient to affect market trading order and was evidently unfair.

The Fair Trade Commission held that the advertisement for the Asus tablet had violated the provisions of the Fair Trade Act and imposed a fine of 200,000 yuan.