Foreign companies the subject of growing complaints
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With foreign brands becoming increasingly popular in China, the number of complaints about overseas products is on the rise.
The phenomenon was flagged on Tuesday, which was World Consumer Rights Day.
An example of the growing complaints came last summer when Suntory (Shanghai) Food Co Ltd, a Japanese-invested beverage maker, was fined nearly 1.37 million yuan ($208,000) by the industry and commerce authorities in Shanghai for misleading advertisements about a tea drink.
The company claimed in TV and newspaper advertisements that its bottled oolong tea, which was launched in May, was beneficial to people's health because it contained no calories. However, the municipal food quality inspection and supervision center found in August that each bottle contained 19,120 calories.
The company has stopped using the advertisements and paid the fine in August, said Qian Huizhu, a customer service representative from the enterprise.
However, the company's website is still claiming the drink "contains zero energy".
"According to the country's regulation on food labeling, a drink can be described as having zero energy as long as every 100 milliliters of it contains less than 17,000 joules of energy, while that type of oolong tea contains 15,300 joules in every 100 ml," Qian claimed.
Recently, the British retail giant Marks & Spencer aroused public concern about food it was selling that was close to its expiry date.
Jia Lijun, a professor at East China Normal University who bought three boxes of black tea leaves from a Marks & Spencer outlet in Shanghai at the end of January, found the tea carried a date that expired one month after the purchase.
The State Administration for Industry and Commerce has regulated that food sellers should clearly mark food that is about to pass its expiry date.
However, a manager at the store refused Jia's request to exchange his purchase, telling him instead that imported food was safe to eat, even if it has expired.
Later, Jia, who specializes in marketing, conducted a sample survey among more than 20 types of food at the store and found that 23 percent were close to their expiration date.
Zara, the Spanish clothing retailer, is another foreign-owned store that has come in for criticism. On Monday, it was accused of selling clothes at a higher price than the one displayed on the label.
A customer reported buying a T-shirt that was labeled with a "special price" of 79 yuan at a Zara outlet on Saturday but said he was charged the original price of 139 yuan after the shop assistant insisted the tag was wrongly attached.
Finally, Zara returned the extra money charged to the customer on Monday and apologized.
"The number of complaints about foreign brand products has been on the rise in recent years, especially among clothes and electronic products," said Zhang Lerong, chief editor of the complaint channel at online.sh.cn, a major local Web portal.
"When we help complainants solve their problems, we often feel the global companies are reluctant to be contacted by the media," said Zhang, who has worked for the channel for five years.
Zhang said global companies should follow China's regulations that protect consumers' rights when doing business in China. In addition, they should not only guarantee the quality of their products but provide reliable after-sales service, said Zhang.
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