The Supreme Court in Taiwan issues ruling pertaining to Article 41 of the Personal Data Protection Act

2021-04-16

On December 9, 2020, The Supreme Court in Taiwan ruled that “the intent to obtain unlawful gains for oneself or a third party” outlined in Article 41 of the Personal Data Protection Act should be limited to financial gains. At the same time, the so-called “intention of impairing another person’s interest” is not limited to the financial interests.

This ruling is based on a dispute regarding the scope of “interests” defined in Article 41 of the Personal Data Protection Act. The Supreme Court has released its decision based on the following reasons:

  1. The Personal Data Protection Act was amended and made public on December 30, 2015 and became effective on March 15, 2016. The new law did not accept the Executive Yuan's decriminalization suggestion of the Article 41, paragraph 1, of the old law, but an amendment to the law that included “the intent to obtain unlawful gains for oneself or the third party, or with the intention of impairing another person’s interests” as an integral part. Thus, Article 41 of the new law can be partitioned into two types of intentions as noted above.

  2. The “intention of impairing another person’s interest” is generally associated with damaging another party, which differs from “the intent to make profits”. The revision of the law shows that lawmakers did not completely rule out the punishment for those who violated the law for purposes unrelated to personal gains. The purpose of the Personal Data Protection Act is to protect personal rights; hence its scope is not limited to financial interests.

  3. Although the scope of the “gains” indicated in “the intent to obtain unlawful gains for oneself or the third party” is not clearly defined, Article 41 is based on revisions to paragraph 2 Article 41 which was originally associated with “the intent to make profits” and limited to financial benefits. Hence, this concept continues to be limited to the financial area.

Having an understanding of the Personal Data Protection Act in Taiwan is becoming increasingly more important. The scope of personal data protection is vast and wide. Today, we advise our clients on this matter even when dealing with mergers and acquisitions. Therefore, finding a law firm specialized in Personal Data Protection is important. In fact, our founder helped revise this Act. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out to us.
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