Taiwan is to suit British brewery for ads defaming Taiwan’s merchandise image
E021224Y6 Jan. 2003（E41）
The supplier of British Johnny Walker whisky, DIAGEO, post up an advertisement defaming Taiwan’s merchandise image at London’s subway stations. The advertisement drew strong protests from opposition legislators, who demanded the Executive Yuan suit DIAGEO abroad, claim damages against it and boycott all of the products marketed by it in Taiwan.
Towards this, the Vice Directorate General of the Department of European Affairs, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Lian-Jun Chen, said if DIAGEO fails to make a satisfactory apology, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is going to take a legal action against it.
The British brewery has earned a business volume of about NT$5 billion per year from the marketing of its Johnny Walker Red and Black labels whisky, which accounted for 50% of the market of the relevant liquors in Taiwan.
