The "sky-high snowflake cake" incident, which was previously on the hot search, has made new progress. It is reported that the merchant involved has received a fine of 100,000 yuan.
Recently, according to the Wuhan Municipal Market Supervision Bureau of Hubei Province, the Wuhan Market Supervision Department has investigated and handled a number of illegal cases of infringement of consumer rights and interests. This includes the case of the "Yi Cake" food store in Jiang'an District, Wuhan City, misleading consumers with misleading publicity.
Source: CCTV News
Buy 5 pieces of snowflake crisp for 681 yuan?
The merchant received a fine of 100,000 yuan
According to the details of the typical case released by the Wuhan Municipal Market Supervision Bureau, on April 9, 2024, the Wuhan Jiang'an District Market Supervision Bureau conducted an investigation into a love crisp food store in Jiang'an District, Wuhan City, based on consumer disputes and media reports.
After investigation, there are multiple units of measurement such as "50g" and "catty" in the centralized commodity price tag summary column of the cashier in the store, which do not correspond to the separation of the displayed commodity position, and the multiple price tags are confused; When the clerk weighed and billed the cherry blossom cake selected by the consumer, he did not show the consumer the unit price, quantity and total price of the purchased goods at the same time, but directly cut it into pieces and asked the consumer to show the payment code to scan the code to charge, concealing the product information that had a major interest in the consumer.
The above-mentioned behavior of the merchant violated the relevant provisions of the "Law of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of Consumer Rights and Interests", and the Market Supervision Bureau of Jiang'an District, Wuhan City, intends to issue a warning and a fine of 100,000 yuan for the illegal act of misleading consumers with misleading publicity.
Lawyer Lin Zhihui, a senior partner of Beijing Yingke (Huizhou) Law Firm, told the reporter of the rule of law network that the use of confusing units of measurement and the inconsistent display position make it difficult for consumers to clearly understand the true price of goods, which is obviously a misleading behavior and violates consumers' right to know. According to Article 10 of the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of Consumer Rights and Interests, consumers have the right to fair trade, and merchants have the obligation to truthfully inform the price of goods. However, the store clerk does not show the consumer the unit price, quantity and total price of the product, and directly cuts it into pieces and asks the consumer to pay a high consumption amount, which is not only suspected of misleading, but also suspected of constituting fraud.
"Snowflake Crisp Assassin" is on the hot search,
The market regulation department opened a case for investigation
Previously, on April 10, the topic # woman said that she bought 5 pieces of snowflake crisp for 681 yuan and was rejected for a refund # on Weibo hot search. Ms. Zhai's family, a citizen of Wuhan, traveled to Wuhan from other places. On the evening of April 7, when they passed by a pastry shop called "Yi Yi Qing Cake" on the pedestrian street of Jianghan Road, the staff at the door warmly invited them to taste the pastry.
They tasted it and decided to buy it, and when they asked the price, one clerk said, "5 yuan a piece." They also asked again with confirmation: "Then we buy 5 yuan for 25 yuan?" The other person replied, "Yes." However, when they had selected five pieces of pastry and weighed them to check out, they were asked to pay 681.4 yuan.
This made Ms. Zhai's family unacceptable, and asked for a refund and return on the spot. At one point, there was an argument between the two sides, which attracted many onlookers. Eventually, a clerk came over and refunded them.
Source: Internet
On April 10, the incident appeared on the hot search and attracted widespread attention. That night, the Wuhan Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism responded to the matter on its official platform, saying, "It is reported that due to suspected fraud, the 'Love Cake' store on Jianghan Road Pedestrian Street was seized by the Yiyuan Street Market Industrial and Commercial Office and the Jianghan Road Pedestrian Street Law Enforcement Squadron on the afternoon of the 10th." ”
Source: Internet
Subsequently, the local market supervision department in Wuhan filed an investigation into the "Love Cake" store, and the store involved was suspended and conducted an internal self-inspection.
There are a large number of "pit avoidance posts" on the online platform,
Consumers form a group to give "bad reviews"
After searching, a reporter from the rule of law network found that as early as before the "sky-high snowflake cake" incident was exposed, there were already a large number of "pit avoidance posts" about "a love cake" on social platforms such as Xiaohongshu. Many consumers laugh at themselves for "big injustices" and shout that netizens must "avoid pits".
Source: Exposure posts on the Xiaohongshu platform
In these "pit avoidance posts", the experiences shared by netizens are very similar to those of Ms. Zhai's family - they decided to buy after being warmly invited by the clerk to taste it, and the clerk directly cut the cake and weighed it with a vague price, and "backstabbed" the unprepared consumer with a high price.
The reporter of the rule of law network also noticed that in the evaluation of the "Love Cake" Jianghan Road store on the Meituan platform, there were also a large number of consumers complaining about the store's "fraud".
Source: Screenshot of consumer reviews on the Meituan platform
In addition, in addition to the exposed Wuhan Jianghan Road store, the "love cake" in Beijing, Nanjing, Xi'an and other places was also complained by netizens as a "giant pit".
"Price assassins" appear repeatedly,
Is the clear price a "gold medal for avoiding death"?
"28 yuan for a plum" and "1.2 yuan a gram of flower and fruit tea", the operator is not clear about the price, the price is not transparent, and the company does not inform in advance, so that consumers have the illusion that the price of the commodity is not expensive, first deceive consumers to buy at a low price, and then settle at a high price, so that consumers fall into the "price trap", similar to this kind of "price assassin" incident has occurred repeatedly in recent years.
In this regard, lawyer Chen Xianmin, a partner of Beijing Yingke (Foshan) Law Firm, said that Article 19 of the "Provisions on Clearly Marked Prices and Prohibition of Price Fraud" stipulates that operators shall not carry out the following price fraud acts...... (6) Not indicating or significantly weakening the price conditions that are unfavorable to consumers or other business operators, and inducing consumers or other business operators to conduct transactions with them. In the "price assassin" incident, merchants induce consumers to buy goods and settle at a high price by blurring the price, which is suspected of price fraud.
Chen Xianmin also pointed out that such incidents have been repeatedly banned, and the difficulty of supervision mainly lies in the concealment of illegal business violations and the difficulty of protecting consumers' rights. When consumers encounter such problems, they often choose to give up their rights protection because the amount is not large, the cost of rights protection is high, and so on.
In fact, one concern that some consumers choose to swallow their anger is that merchants do clearly mark prices. So, can clearly marked prices become a "death-free gold medal" for merchants?
Previously, Qing Qichen, a researcher at the Public Decision Research Center of China University of Political Science and Law, said in an interview with the media that both the mainland price law and the consumer protection law stipulate that operators have the obligation to clearly mark prices. Therefore, if the operator does not clearly mark the price, and through deception or coercion to make a purchase, it will constitute an illegality. However, this does not mean that operators can be exempted from violating the law as long as they clearly mark the price, and that they are not cheating or honest in the consumer protection system, but only the most basic requirements for operators.
Qing Qichen stressed that the Consumer Rights Protection Law also gives consumers the right to obtain reasonable trading conditions when purchasing goods. In the event of an extremely high price, the consumer may request the cancellation of the sales contract and request a refund on the grounds of obvious unfairness.
Liu Junhai, director of the Institute of Commercial Law of Chinese University, also pointed out that the three rights of consumers under the Consumer Rights Protection Law, namely the right to know, the right to choose and the right to fair trade, are complementary and inseparable. Some merchants sell goods at excessively unreasonable high prices, hoping to tap their own brand premiums, believing that "since the pricing is public, there is no misleading consumers". There is a problem with this way of thinking, and the clear price only respects the consumer's right to know and choose, but it is not equal to the right to fair trade, and the right to fair trade is independent.
So, in case of inflated prices, consumer fraud, etc., how should consumers protect their rights? Lawyer Lin Zhihui suggested that in the process of daily consumption, consumers should first ask about the price and service content of the goods, and verify the pricing unit and price of the goods indicated on the price list before deciding whether to buy. You should also check the bill carefully after payment to avoid falling into the "price trap" of the operator. When consumers find that their rights and interests have been damaged, they should keep the relevant evidence in the transaction process, and promptly complain and report through the national 12315 platform, local 12345 telephone and other channels in accordance with the law, or complain to the local consumer committee, so as to fully protect their legitimate rights and interests.
[Source: WeChat public account of the rule of law network]