Many citizens fell into the consumption trap by mistake. In the past 10 years, the Consumer Council's Consumer Litigation Fund has received a total of 188 applications for legal assistance, of which 42 were accepted, accounting for about 22.3% of the total.
The cases handled involved bad business practices such as beauty, fitness and home decoration. Half of them were related to prepaid payments. The total amount involved was about 4 million yuan. Among them, 12 cases were won and 11 cases were settled.
A mentally ill patient was bombarded by fatigue in a beauty salon, and finally reluctantly purchased three membership plans and two beauty packages, totaling 800,000 yuan, and prepaid 276,000 yuan with a card. With the assistance of the fund, the victim finally got back about 16.7 million yuan. There are also owners who were misled by the intermediary of the loan company to borrow a second mortgage loan, and lost about 430,000 yuan. After intervention, they managed to get back about 280,000 yuan.
The Consumer Litigation Fund was established by the Hong Kong Government in 1994 to provide legal advice, assistance to consumers, and appoint lawyers and barristers to file civil claims.
(file picture)
The Consumer Litigation Fund was established by the Hong Kong Government in 1994 to provide legal advice, assistance to consumers, and appoint lawyers and barristers to file civil claims.
Consumers who do not meet the qualifications for other legal assistance may apply to the Fund for assistance if the case involves misconduct by merchants and significant consumer interests.
In 2005 and 2008 respectively, the Fund assisted a group of small property owners of "One Beacon Hill" and the bitter owner of "Lehman Brothers Mini Bonds", the former successfully recovered the agreed interest from the developer due to the delay in the completion and delivery of the development project , the court also severely criticized the developer for some unscrupulous business practices.
Consumers pay an application fee of $1,000 (or $100 if the case is before the Small Claims Tribunal), and the fund will review it according to an established process.
After the recipient successfully recovers, the shared expenses, including attorney and barrister fees, will be deducted.
The fund said that in the 10-year period from 2012 to the first quarter of 2022, it received a total of 188 applications and provided assistance to 42 of them.
(Photo from the Consumer Council's website)
According to the fund, in the 10 years from 2012 to the first quarter of 2022, a total of 188 applications were received, considering the chances of winning the case and whether it has a deterrent effect on unscrupulous business practices. The fund provided assistance to 42 of these cases, mainly involving beauty and fitness. (16 cases), home improvement (four cases) and financial industry (two cases), the remaining cases involved time-sharing, columbarium and property sales, etc.
The 40 assisted cases involved service contracts, half of which involved prepayments. The amount involved in each case ranged from several thousand to 800,000 yuan, with a total of over 4 million yuan. million-dollar claim.
Of the 42 assisted cases, 22 were closed and 12 were awarded in favor, including three related to the beauty and fitness industry, involving a total amount of more than $1.2 million.
In the past 10 years, a total of 11 settlements were finally reached, and the settlement amount exceeded 2.24 million yuan.
The cases handled by the Fund cover bad business practices such as beauty, fitness and home decoration. The mentally ill patients with an education level of only secondary three were bombarded by the fatigue of the beauty parlor, including arranging them in a cramped room by two staff members for up to an hour. The high-pressure salesmanship made him feel the psychological pressure of "must buy the plan before leaving" and "sorry not to buy" between words and deeds.
He eventually reluctantly purchased three similar membership plans and two beauty packages, involving a total of 800,000 yuan, and prepaid a total of 276,000 yuan by credit card instalments.
The Fund believed that the case involved bad business practices and unreasonable behavior. After negotiation, the beauty salon involved agreed to return the prepaid amount as a settlement.
After deducting the shared expenses, the assisted consumers finally got back about 167,000 yuan.
The fund has also successfully sought justice for the debtor of the loan.
The case alleges that an intermediary called a residential owner, claiming to represent the mortgage bank for his residence, and saying that a second mortgage loan of $900,000 could be provided by paying a few hundred extra a month.
During the meeting, the intermediary changed the statement that since it would take two to three months for the bank to approve the loan, another finance company would provide the loan of 900,000 yuan and transfer it to the bank after the approval was completed.
The intermediary also claimed that the 400,000 yuan of which will be managed by it and used to pay the interest for the first three months, that is, 500,000 yuan can actually be collected.
The assisted consumer accepted the arrangement without fear of fraud, but then received a bill for "intermediary fees" involving about 369,000 yuan, and only then did they discover that the agency's claim was false.
The assisted consumer immediately repaid the loan in one lump sum to reduce losses, but still
suffered losses of about 430,000 yuan, including intermediary fees, attorney fees, and interest paid.
The fund intervened and filed a lawsuit on its behalf. The assisted consumers finally received compensation of about 340,000 yuan from the finance company, plus 140,000 yuan of legal costs as a settlement, and ordered the intermediary to pay about 78,000 Hong Kong dollars (plus interest) and judgment costs of approximately HK$7,000).
After deducting the shared expenses, the assisted consumers finally got back about 280,000 yuan.
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