A dried seafood shop today (October 29) pleaded guilty at Kowloon City Magistracy to charges of engaging in a commercial practice involving misleading omission in contravention of the Trade Descriptions Ordinance (TDO) and supplying goods short of the quantity purporting to be supplied, thereby contravening the Weights and Measures Ordinance (WMO).
The shop was fined $20,000 under the TDO and $5,000 under the WMO. The seized dried seafood worth about $4,500 was also confiscated.
Acting on information, a Customs officer test purchased one catty of dried oyster at the alleged shop in January this year. The shop displayed a placard of "grade A large oyster 500G $118 per catty" in Chinese for the goods. The words of "500G" were comparatively so small that it misled customers into believing that the price of the goods was measured in catty.
In the course of the test purchase, the shop intentionally avoided providing the price unit of the dried oyster when asked by the Customs officer, thereby wilfully omitting and hiding the actual price unit. As a result, the customer was misled into believing that the price was measured in catty. Besides, the shop only supplied 476 grammes of dried oyster which were short of one catty that is about 604 grammes purporting to be supplied.
Customs also found two other similar misleading placards displayed for sale of dried scallop and shrimp in the shop, suspected to be in violation of TDO. A total of 36 catties of dried oysters, dried scallops and dried shrimps were seized in the operation.
Under the TDO, misleading omission is a kind of unfair trade practice prohibited and offenders are liable to a maximum penalty of $500,000 and five years' imprisonment upon conviction. Under the WMO, any person who in the course of trade supplies goods to another person by weight, should supply the goods in net weight. Any shortage of quantity purporting to be supplied is an offence. The maximum penalty is a fine of $10,000.
A Customs spokesperson reminds traders to comply with the law, give consumers sufficient and clear material information required for making an informed transactional decision and supply goods with sufficient weight or quantity. For consumers, they should be cautious about the purchased goods' price unit, weight and quantity. In case of doubt, they should ask for more information and keep the goods, invoices and receipts for future reference.
Suspected violations of the TDO and WMO can be reported to the Customs 24-hour hotline 2545 6182.
Ends/Wednesday, October 29, 2014