On March 15th, it's the annual Consumer Rights Day. The Hainan High Court unveiled 9 typical cases of consumer rights protection, one of which involves the "Night Interception and Forced Purchase of a Phone from a Female College Student by a Phone Retailer."
According to reports, on June 23, 2021, the Hainan Provincial Consumer Council received a complaint from a female college student named Yu, stating that on her way back to school on the 22nd, she was intercepted by an individual claiming to be an employee of a certain brand's phone sales company.
The employee claimed the company was holding a promotional event. Yu cooperated by scanning QR codes, voting, and participating in a lucky draw, eventually winning a smart phone model that had not yet been released.
Subsequently, Yu was taken to a storefront, where the store manager, Tian, checked her Alipay credit rating, Huabei balance, etc., and requested her to provide personal information such as her ID number and register for an overseas shopping mall account.
At the same time, Tian informed Yu that, based on her good credit rating, 5000 credits had been added to her overseas shopping mall account. She was required to sign a "Confirmation of Quota Reception" form in order to obtain the phone and use 3500 credits. Tian demanded Yu to cash out 5000 CNY using Huabei and give it to the company, but Yu refused.
However, the staff insisted that they had credited Yu with 5000 credits, and she must cash out 5000 CNY using Huabei to give to the company. Eventually, under duress, Yu reluctantly signed the confirmation form and cashed out 3500 CNY for the company, leaving the store at 10:30 pm.
After returning to school, Yu realized that the 5000 credits were actually points and could not be directly used to purchase goods.
The Hainan Provincial Consumer Council believes that the behavior exhibited clear signs of forced transactions and suspicion of infringing on Yu's personal freedom. It constitutes a typical case of forced coercion to consume. Ultimately, with the mediation of the council, Yu received a full refund on the same day.
