June 2023
Weke Chen
Due to the increasing awareness of animal protection in Taiwan, the current regulations have a need to align with international standards. On April 28, 2023, the Council of Agriculture of the Executive Yuan proposed the draft Amendments to the Animal Protection Act (hereinafter, the “Draft”)[1] to promote and deepen animal protection and respect for the value of life, strengthen the responsibility of pet owners, and enhance pet administration.
The Draft focuses on strengthening owner accountability, enhancing the management of animal use and the prevention of animal abuse, improving the pet industry administration, and enhancing the enforcement of animal protection inspectors.
In particular, in addition to operators and pet owners in the animal-related industries, the Draft imposes new obligations on advertisers, internet platform providers, and internet application service providers regarding restricted access to, and removal of, illegal webpage materials, and if operators fail to perform the obligations pursuant to law, the competent authority may impose a fine of NT$15,000 to NT$75,000 (Article 54, Paragraphs 1, Subparagraphs 8 and 12 of the Draft). The relevant obligations are listed as follows:
1. For webpages containing information about the sale of steel-jaw traps, spring-loaded continuous pressure snares made of metal, electric shock collars, and other items announced by the central competent authority, those advertisers, internet platform providers, and internet application service providers have an obligation to restrict access to or remove related webpage materials (Article 20, Paragraph 2 of the Draft).
2. Under the following circumstances, advertisers, internet platform providers, and internet application service providers shall, upon knowledge or notification by the competent authority, restrict access to or remove illegal webpage materials, retain them for at least 60 days, and provide them as instructed by the competent authority (Article 34, Paragraph 1 of the Draft).
(1) Webpage content relates to the unauthorized sale of designated pets requiring permits or recordation in violation of Article 25, Paragraph 2 of the Draft;
(2) Webpage content relates to the unauthorized sale of specific pets in violation of Article 32, Paragraph 1, Subparagraph 1 of the Draft; or
(3) Webpage content relates to the advertisement and promotion by specific pet breeding, selling, or boarding operators without indicating the correct license number.
3. Internet access service providers are also required to restrict access to the webpage materials listed in the above Paragraphs 1 and 2 or take necessary measures upon notification by the competent authority (Article 34, Paragraph 2 of the Draft).
The amended contents in this Draft are significant, and the competent authority urges to implement it as soon as possible, thus shortening the pre-announcement period for the Draft to 14 days. It is recommended that operators closely monitor legislative updates and related developments, proactively deploy mechanisms to manage the content of their platform webpages, and take corresponding actions to avoid unexpected penalties.
[1] The Council of Agriculture announced that the Animal Protection Act would be amended with the pre-announcement period of the draft from April 28 to May 14 of 2023; URL: https://join.gov.tw/policies/detail/e0fd84a7-abac-4fe0-a58a-f3d623f5af58 (last reviewed on May 30, 2023)
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