A female director of a beauty parlour was sentenced to 240 hours' community service order today (October 11) at the Kwun Tong Magistrates' Courts following earlier conviction for wrongly accepting payment in the course of selling beauty services, in contravention of the Trade Descriptions Ordinance (TDO).
Hong Kong Customs earlier received information alleging that a beauty parlour in Sai Kung suddenly announced business cessation and customers who had purchased prepaid beauty services were unable to use the services concerned. The beauty parlour also failed to arrange refunds to the affected customers.
After investigation, Customs found that the female director was still promoting prepaid beauty treatment services to customers when the beauty parlour was about to cease business, and received around $54,000 of pre-payment fees from four customers without reasonable grounds for believing that the relevant services could be provided within a reasonable period of time.
Customs reminds traders to comply with the requirements of the TDO. Consumers are also reminded to procure services at reputable shops and think prudently before making decisions for consumption with prepayment.
Under the TDO, any trader commits an offence if at the time of acceptance of payment, the trader intends not to supply the product or intends to supply a materially different product, or there are no reasonable grounds for believing that the trader will be able to supply the product within a specified or reasonable period. The maximum penalty upon conviction is a fine of $500,000 and imprisonment for five years.
Members of the public may report any suspected violations of the TDO to Customs' 24-hour hotline 2545 6182 or its dedicated crime-reporting email account (crimereport@customs.gov.hk) or online form (eform.cefs.gov.hk/form/ced002).
Ends/Wednesday, October 11, 2023