Zhongxin Jingwei, May 8 Recently, topics related to the incident of four men blackmailing Haidilao against criminal detention rushed to the hot search on Weibo, and the incident aroused heated discussions among netizens.
Nowadays, consumers' awareness of the protection of their rights in food safety is gradually increasing, and at the same time, all walks of life are constantly strengthening the protection of consumer rights and interests to create a good consumption environment and consumer experience.
As we all know, when there is a foreign object in the dish during dine-in or take-out in a restaurant, in addition to asking the merchant to refund the paid price, the consumer can also demand compensation of 10 times the price of the dish or 3 times the loss from the store or producer in accordance with the Food Safety Law. However, some lawbreakers have moved their "crooked minds" and used the relevant legal basis to carry out false rights protection, really "touch porcelain", and defraud illegal benefits.
According to media reports, in March this year, when three customers went to Beijing Pinggu Haidilao hot pot restaurant, one of the customers ate broken glass slag from a sesame sauce bowl and immediately demanded compensation from the merchant. The manager on duty checked the sesame sauce jar on the material table, and indeed filtered out the broken glass slag, and immediately exempted the customer at this table and compensated 2,500 yuan.
Source: Video account when the rule of law is in progress
Employees have repeatedly emphasized food safety management issues from top to bottom, and there are special personnel responsible for real-time control of the daily food safety work in the store, and it is impossible to have such a serious incident that threatens the life safety of consumers. The broken glass slag in the sesame sauce jar was stolen by one of the customers. After investigation, the police locked up four suspects, who had committed five crimes in Pinggu, Chaoyang, Changping and Hebei Province in Beijing in the past five months, defrauding more than 10,000 yuan.
According to the police, these people picked Haidilao hot pot restaurants to commit crimes, and every time before entering the store, one of them would hide the broken glass ballast in his mouth, and wait for the opportunity to commit the crime at the end of the meal. At present, the suspect has been criminally detained, and the police also went to the hot pot restaurant to shoot an anti-extortion video, widely publicize it to the merchants, understand the "overlord meal" routine, and prevent being extorted by criminals.
Source: Video account when the rule of law is in progress
At present, Haidilao's official response said that it was rumored on the Internet that #4 people were detained for extortion by eating hot pot with broken glass slag #Hot search incident, and several extortion acts involving the suspect occurred in Haidilao stores in Beijing, Chengde and other places. Within five months, the four men in five Haidilao stores in Beijing, Chengde and other places in succession, repeatedly touched porcelain and made malicious claims, involving more than 10,000 yuan in fraud. At present, the suspect has been criminally detained by the Beijing police on suspicion of extortion. A spokesperson for Haidilao expressed his gratitude to the police for quickly cracking down on illegal activities, creating a good business environment for enterprises, and ensuring a safe and healthy dining environment for customers. Haidilao will continue to build a strong line of defense for food safety, bravely say no to malicious claims, extortion and other illegal acts, and protect the legitimate rights and interests of enterprises and the public with the law.
Source: Weibo of Haidilao's Legal Department
It is not difficult to find that criminals extort money after "adding some ingredients" to the dish, often targeting large chain catering enterprises. It is accurate that these well-known brands cherish their brand image, and bet that they will lose money by calming things down. Haidilao did not swallow its anger after the self-inspection, but cooperated with the police to take the initiative to protect its legitimate rights and interests.
The Beijing police acted quickly to effectively protect the legitimate rights and interests of catering operators. It is not enough to rely on enterprises to identify and reject extortion, and we also call on the police to strike hard at such extortion cases, pay more attention to malicious claims and malicious rights protection cases, and crack down on criminals' luck psychology, so that there is nothing to hide from crime. At the same time, we should do a good job of popularizing legal education for the public, better safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of catering operators, and let people with ulterior motives have no chance.
If you eat a foreign object in the food when you eat out, you can claim compensation from the merchant to protect your legitimate rights and interests. These suspects turned the incident into a criminal act of extortion. The difference in the middle, I am afraid that the "evil thoughts" in the heart, the "Food Safety Law", "Consumer Rights Protection Law" and other laws and regulations are weapons to safeguard everyone's food safety and consumer rights and interests, rather than the evil tools of extortion and extortion by criminals. Criminals use this to carry out extortion and will be punished by law!
Judging from the review of the case, this gang has committed many crimes in Haidilao, and it can be said that it is not "hard": if you have to hold the glass ballast in your mouth, you will inevitably prick your mouth, and you have to "act" with the merchants, and you have to find ways to avoid all kinds of surveillance and the eyes of passers-by. I only got 10,000 yuan for a busy job, and it was not easy to divide the "spoils", and in the end, I was arrested on suspicion of fraud.
With the popularization of the Food Safety Law and the enhancement of consumer legal awareness, and at the same time, catering businesses are more brand concept and word-of-mouth awareness, and the food safety problem in mainland China is steadily improving. However, this also gives people with ulterior motives an opportunity to take advantage of the legitimate and reasonable claim in the event of a problem, but rights protection is not the same as a malicious claim. It is understood that in recent years, many consumers have abused the relevant provisions of the Food Safety Law to fabricate facts and conceal the truth to make large claims to merchants.
In 2023, the Shanghai Huangpu District People's Court tried a food safety "fake rights protection" case, in which the defendant fabricated facts such as foreign objects in the food and food deterioration caused by fever and medical treatment through fake pictures, and made extortion claims against 14 restaurants in 5 districts of Shanghai within two years, involving an amount of more than 10,000 yuan. In the end, the court ruled that the defendant was sentenced to six months imprisonment, suspended for one year, returned the fraud money, and fined 3,000 yuan for the crime of fraud. In addition, the media also frequently reported similar cases, such as "deliberate blackmail by cockroaches in the mouth", "fake claims for putting flies in milk tea", etc., and the methods are similar. The criminals mainly seized the psychology of the store owner to calm down as soon as possible in order to maintain the reputation of the store.
Malicious claims are gradually becoming gangs and professionals, and there is even a trend of forming a black and gray industry chain. According to the investigation, some people have openly sold and disseminated compensation tutorials through social platforms, and some criminals have charged dozens to hundreds of yuan, and the whole process has guided others in detail to complain to the merchant for compensation on the grounds of eating foreign objects.
In terms of law, there are relevant precedents for such incidents, and the Huangpu District People's Court has used the Criminal Law as the basis for adjudicating relevant cases. The Criminal Law stipulates that a person who defrauds public or private property, and the amount is relatively large, shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years, short-term detention or controlled release, and/or a fine; where the amount is huge or there are other serious circumstances, a sentence of between 3 and 10 years imprisonment and a concurrent fine is to be given; where the amount is especially huge or there are other especially serious circumstances, a sentence of 10 or more years imprisonment or indefinite imprisonment is to be given, and a concurrent fine or confiscation of property. In particular, it should be noted that if multiple frauds have been committed within two years, and the amount of fraud reaches RMB 3,000, it can be deemed to have met the standard of "relatively large amount" as stipulated in the Criminal Law.
In the face of this malicious extortion, relevant departments are also stepping up their attacks. In 2023, the police cracked a number of malicious claim cases, arrested more than 40 people, and helped merchants recover a total of 24 million yuan in economic losses. And many restaurants are also actively defending, and a large number of cases are information exchange between restaurant peers, and finally lock up the criminals.
In the service industry, food safety incidents have always been the most feared problem for catering companies. Generally speaking, most companies will choose to settle the matter because they are worried that the incident will cause greater public opinion and bad reviews, thus giving criminals an opportunity to take advantage of it.
As the saying goes, the law cannot bow to lawlessness. The law is to make it more expensive for the bad guys to commit crimes. It is not enough to rely solely on enterprises to actively identify and reject extortion, the police should pay more attention to relevant types of incidents, intervene more quickly, strengthen the popularization of legal education on malicious rights protection incidents in restaurants, and increase legal deterrence. On the one hand, while protecting the legitimate rights and interests of consumers, it also effectively protects the rights and interests of operators, so as to create a good economic environment and social atmosphere.
Food safety is related to the health of the people, and it is a people's livelihood project and a people's project. While strengthening food safety protection, it is more necessary to improve legislative guarantees, actively cooperate with the police and the people, and work together between industries to jointly combat the occurrence of malicious rights protection and illegal acts.
In February 2024, the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Commerce and other 9 departments issued a notice on the "Action Plan for Promoting the High-quality Development of Beijing's Catering Industry and Accelerating the Construction of an International City of Gastronomy", which mentioned that the catering industry is a key area for prosperous consumption, ensuring people's livelihood and stabilizing employment. Establish a fault-tolerant mechanism, and explore the implementation of a system of exemption from punishment for minor violations and prudent punishment for first-time violations. Crack down on the chaos of "malicious claims" and "extortion" in accordance with the law. The police's legal education and heavy-handed attacks have also maintained the business environment of catering enterprises and helped the healthy development of the industry. (Sino-Singapore Jingwei APP)