From January to May this year, Hong Kong Customs received 2,449 reports of suspected violations of the Trade Descriptions Ordinance. Among them, 1,629 complaints were related to goods, accounting for 67% of the overall figure; another 820 complaints were related to services, an increase of 20% over last year. half, accounting for 33% of the overall figure.
The overall number of whistleblowers increased slightly by 4% compared to the 2,360 cases reported in the same period last year.
The customs ordered the epidemic to impose entry and exit restrictions in various places. Citizens were unable to travel abroad and turned to staycations. Complaints about local hotels increased accordingly.
In addition, after the reopening of the beauty industry, some employees actively promoted some services that whistleblowers had no interest in, in order to catch up with the lost turnover due to the epidemic, which also led to an increase in the number of complaints.
Jiang Yili, acting senior supervisor of the Copyright and Trademark Investigation Division, said that in the first five months of this year, Customs received 2,449 reports of suspected violations of the Trade Descriptions Ordinance, including 1,629 complaints about goods and 820 complaints about services. There were about 630 complaints arising from company failures, a figure similar to last year.
Beauty salon reopening staff are too active to "run"
Jiang Yili pointed out that the number of reports related to the beauty industry in the service industry has nearly tripled from 327 in 2019 to 1,021 in 2021. Among them, 679 were caused by the closure of chain beauty groups. Similar to the word go.
Jiang Yili pointed out that although the beauty industry was closed according to government regulations due to the epidemic, the number of complaints did not decrease. The reports mainly involved two types, including false product descriptions and threatening business practices.
Customs pointed out that after the reopening of beauty salons, in order to catch up with the turnover during the period of closure, the staff was too aggressive in promoting services that some whistleblowers had no interest in; some complaints were due to consumers being unable to make an ideal appointment or the beauticians they knew had left. , so dissatisfied with the service.
Complaints in the fitness industry and tourism services have dropped significantly
As for the number of reports of fitness services, the number of reports dropped sharply from 723 in 2019 to 207 in 2021. Customs pointed out that before 2020, the most well-known bad business practices in the fitness industry are employees’ intimidating business practices to force young people to do so. Buy tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of fitness contracts.
Customs launched a special operation in 2019 and successfully attacked the black sheep. In addition, the court has imposed heavy sentences on related cases. Customs believes that strict enforcement has worked against bad actors in the industry.
The customs pointed out that the decoration industry was less affected by the epidemic, and the number of reports did not change much. The main complaints revolved around charging issues and the progress of the project, which caused disputes between consumers and merchants. Part of the reason was the transportation of decoration materials and manpower arrangements under the epidemic. etc., affect the decoration service.
Before the epidemic, complaints about travel services accounted for one or two of the overall complaints. Before the epidemic, most of the complaints were about unfulfilled travel packages and air tickets. Due to the implementation of entry and exit restrictions, citizens were unable to go out, so the number of complaints dropped significantly.
Bad business practices of ginseng and seafood turn to locals
Liu Zhizhong, commander of the second unit of the Unscrupulous Business Practices Investigation Section, pointed out that the unscrupulous business practices of ginseng mushrooms and seafood are mostly aimed at tourists, because tourists are unfamiliar with Hong Kong laws, and it is difficult to investigate if they stay for a short time. Local customers, they turn to the neighbors to start, they usually ask for help and recommend herbal supplements, grind them into powder without the customer's confirmation of the purchase, and even bury their hands in the elderly, taking advantage of the elderly's poor memory and fear of trouble, to demand payment from consumers.
Citizens unable to travel abroad, transfer home holiday, local hotel complaints rise
Liu Zhizhong pointed out that due to the restrictions imposed by local epidemic prevention measures, citizens could not leave Hong Kong for outbound travel. The number of reports from the aviation and tourism industries dropped from 289 in 2019 to 16 in 2021, and there were only 14 complaints in the first five months of this year.
Lau Chi-chung pointed out that the residents had opened and closed staycations, and Customs received 15 reports from local hotels in 2019, 58 in 2021 and 17 in the first five months of this year. Most of the complaints were related to the quality of hotel services. For example, there are differences between the landscape and the advertised products, and the facilities provided by some hotels are suddenly closed.
Customs has noticed that the relevant complaints do not violate the law, but in order to prevent merchants from falling into the legal net by mistake, Customs will actively communicate with the hotel industry and use publicity and education methods to make the hotel industry better understand the regulations and requirements.
Customs actively inspects anti-epidemic items including rapid antigen test kits
Mao Huimin, Chief Trade Control Officer of the Commodity Description and Investigation Division, pointed out that the Customs will launch a guardian operation in 2020, actively inspecting items such as surgical masks and disinfectant alcohol in various districts in Hong Kong. In the first half of the year, a total of 7,700 people were mobilized, and about 40,000 retail points were inspected. 40 cases of suspected violations of the Trade Descriptions Ordinance and the Consumer Product Safety Ordinance were investigated, a total of 91 people were arrested, and about 38.5 million surgical masks and disinfectant alcohol were seized, with a market value of about 144 million yuan.
From February to May this year, the customs also took the initiative to inspect 75 types of rapid antigen test kits on the market, and the customs found that the merchants did not violate the trade description regulations.
In addition, Customs found that a whistleblower ordered 400 boxes of designated brand masks from buyers on social platforms, worth about 58,000 yuan. Unexpectedly, the buyer packaged "no-brand" or unmarked masks in plastic bags. The buyer violated the "Commodity" He was sentenced to 3 months in prison by the court for the crime of improperly receiving payments under the Explanation Regulations.
Another case involved the online sale of video games and models, with more than 200 reports alleging the same toy retailer.
The toy retailer involved was suspected of failing to provide models, video game consoles, etc. according to the buyer's order. The seller was eventually sentenced to a social service order and compensation of 19,000 yuan.
Customs revealed that more than 100 of the 200 complainants did not continue to provide information to the Customs, and in the end only single-digit whistleblowers were willing to testify in court.
Customs is appealing to the public to cooperate and provide information.