A Lotte store in Chaoyang was fined RMB500,000 (USD72,570) for promotions fraud. Ahead of the Chinese New Year holiday, the market posted inaccurate and misleading prices, which often misled customers into thinking they were getting excellent bargains on goods, China Daily reports.
The Beijing Development and Reform Commission conducted an inspection of the Beijing branch from January 20 to 22 and concluded that the store’s practices were, in fact, fraudulent. The decision was made on March 3.
Just to give you an example, the Lotte store posted that a bag of rice was discounted from RMB52.9 to RMB29.9. In that instance it turns out the rice wasn’t on sale at all; the price was RMB29.9 before the promotion. The same practice was used on numerous items, from alcohol to food to clothing.
One commission official stated that this case of price fraud was very serious. Despite the fact that the branch had previously been fined over fraudulent pricing, the behavior continued.
But apparently this particular Chaoyang Lotte store is not alone.
"Shopping malls and supermarkets are a key target in our price-related law enforcement," the official said.
In 2016, half of the complaints the commission dealt with cited price-related issues in shopping centers.
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