Hong Kong retailers scramble to comply with tougher law on price tags
Fake discounts and other sharp practices made illegal from tomorrow, but business owners say newly tightened legislation is highly ambiguous
The city's retailers are busy changing price tags in their stores in order to comply with new consumer protection regulations that come into effect tomorrow.
Amendments to the Trade Descriptions Ordinance have expanded its coverage from goods to services, banning misleading sales practices such as faking discounts and concealing extra charges.
Retailers must use price-related terms such as "sale", "original price" and "reduced price" accurately and judiciously to avoid misleading consumers, according to guidelines from the Customs and Excise department, which will enforce the new rules.
In response to the new requirements, snack chain 759 Store yesterday started to replace some "discounted" price tags.
In the past, the shop ran a membership scheme offering members a 10 per cent discount on regular-priced goods but not "discounted" goods. Those "discounted" goods were not actually sold at a lower price; the tag merely indicated that the membership discount did not apply.
"Some customers may have wondered if there was a higher 'original price'," said 759 Store owner Coils Lam Wai-chun. "In fact, our intention was to tell members the goods would not be further discounted."
To clear up any misunderstanding, 759 has come up with two new measures: it has raised the prices of some of those goods and removed their "discounted" tag; for other goods, the "discounted" tag has been replaced with one that reads "official fixed price", meaning no discount.
