Taipei City Government

It is the beginning of a brand-new year and semester, and everyone is full of aspirations and expectations about their future. Say goodbye to the gloominess and let us purchase some heartening yet practical stationery in order to embrace the new semester. Parents should also take this opportunity to accompany their children to buy back to school supplies and teach them how to protect themselves by choosing the right products.

Taipei City Office of Commerce (TCOOC) would like to remind the public that stationery stores are public business venues, so please remember to wash your hands frequently and avoid touching your eyes, mouth, and nose with your hands. Moreover, you should also avoid crowded hours to protect your health and that of others. Let us all be responsible citizens and maintain proper hygiene.

The agency recently conducted a random inspection of 220 common stationery items on the market that are used by students including pencils, pencil boxes, crayons, rulers, compasses, box cutters, watercolors, and glue, etc., revealing a fail rate of 22.72%. The primary reasons for failing the inspection are incorrect labeling of “Country of Origin” and “Main Use and Instructions,” as well as the lack of “Distributor, Importer or Agent’s Telephone,” “Original Manufacturer’s Address,” and “Warning Label” of special stationery. TCOOC has demanded the manufacturers rectify the said problems before the deadline, and products that have not been rectified in time will be banned.
 

Table of Back to School Supplies That Have Failed the TCOOC’s Random Inspection

Item	Passed	Failed	Subtotal	Fail Rate
General Stationery	125	32	157	20.38%
Special Stationery	45	18	63	28.57%
Total Number of Stationery Items	170	50	220	22.72%

In order to verify whether the stationery you have purchased has the proper labels, please follow the 3 steps below:
Step 1: Select stationery products with labels printed in traditional Chinese.
Step 2: Confirm that the label contains information such as product name, manufacturer name and telephone; imported goods should be labeled with the name and telephone of the distributor, importer or agent, as well as the name, address, and country of origin of the original manufacturer.
Step 3: Special stationery should be labeled with main use and instructions (instruction manual should be printed separately), main materials or ingredients, caution or emergency treatment, validity date (limited to chemical or adhesive-type stationery), and warning label.

Please follow the 3 aforementioned steps to purchase stationery products and read the labels carefully in order to protect your rights. For more Commodity Labeling Act and labeling standards-related regulations, please refer to the TCOOC’s official website (https://reurl.cc/1Q97nQ).