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進入《TAIPEI TIMES 焦點》 EasyCards to be sold via telephone
By Sean Lin / Staff reporter
EasyCard Corp （悠遊卡） yesterday announced that it would sell 30,000 EasyCards featuring images of Japanese adult video actress Yui Hatano exclusively to people who pre-order the cards over the telephone, adding that it has scrapped all plans to market Hatano-themed cards.
In a statement, the company said that to accommodate diverse public opinion, as well as to achieve a balance between EasyCard Corp’s commercial activities and the role it plays in people’s everyday life, it would drop all plans to market the cards in stores and on the Internet.
However, the company plans to sell 15,000 sets — each set containing two cards — of completed cards via telephone pre-orders. Lines open at midnight.
Plans to market cards featuring Hatano have been axed and no more cards displaying Hatano’s portrait are to be made, the company said.
The company said it is deeply sorry for having sparked a major controversy.
It conducted an internal review of company statutes, and found that there are no policies to regulate card covers.
EasyCard Corp is to hold a thorough review and formulate rules to regulate future products, it said.
An assistant to EasyCard chairman Liao Tai-hsiang （廖泰翔） said that the company made the announcements after consulting Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je （柯文哲）.
He said there is no age restriction on people who want to purchase the cards.
Ko yesterday said that he would not ask Tai to resign over the controversy.
The company’s announcement drew criticism from some city councilors.
Taipei City Councilor Chien Shu-pei （簡舒培） of the Democratic Progressive Party said that Ko still did not understand why the cards were unfit for sale and why they had sparked such great controversy.
She questioned EasyCard’s intention of launching a pre-order service, saying that instead of settling the issue, the move would stimulate more public interest in the disputed cards.
Chien also questioned whether Ko’s approving the sale was aimed purely at boosting the cards’ circulation.
She panned what she said were “flip-flops” in Ko’s remarks and in Tai’s decisionmaking.
Shortly before the firm issued a statement, Ko yesterday said that the cards would not be released “publicly.”
“This shows that Ko, who had always stressed the importance of an SOP [standard operating procedure], lacked any SOP on this matter,” she said.
Taipei City Councilor William Hsu （徐宏庭） of the Chinese Nationalist Party （KMT） called on Ko to explain whether accepting pre-orders via telephone counts as publicly releasing the cards.
He said that Ko, in his capacity as Taipei mayor, should have had the final say regarding the sale, but instead he allowed EasyCard to “overrule” his decision.
The incongruity between Ko’s and EasyCard’s statements was said to be a “slap in the face” to Ko.
新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES
