The city’s top 10 consumer rights protection events of 2018 were selected through online voting and a review group with Shenzhen Consumer Council on Friday, which marked the 37th International Consumer Rights Day.
The events, covering various fields, such as automobile maintenance and food safety, highlighted the achievements that the city has made in cracking down on illegal acts against consumer rights, launching consumer education activities and exploring new mechanisms for safeguarding consumer rights.
For instance, the city’s market supervision administration has taken the initiative to issue local standards for the investigation and evaluation of commodity and service quality.
In a recent campaign targeting the health products market, the market regulator dealt with a case involving illegal advertising for medical equipment, according to the Shenzhen Evening News.
The company, Shenzhen Kanglefu Technology Co. Ltd., was found to have exaggerated the efficacy of its therapeutic instrument. The profit margins for some of their products were as high as 200 percent. The company will face a maximum fine of 2 million yuan (US$297,885).
On the company’s website, a therapeutic instrument was touted as being able to repair cancer immune genes, activate cancer immune cells, prompt the apoptosis of cancer cells, treat enteritis and angiopathy, and inhibit the proliferation of cancer cells.
However, the product’s registration information didn’t show that it had efficacy in cancer treatment.
During a raid of the company’s store, law enforcers also found that posters with the exaggerated content had been hung on the walls, while several elderly consumers were trying out the medical device.
The company is suspected of publishing illegal advertisements and will be fined between 200,000 yuan and 2 million yuan in accordance with the country’s advertising law, said the market regulator.