Changning City Consumer Liao Yunguo spent more than 130,000 yuan to buy a "new car". Two months later, he accidentally discovered that the vehicle had been repaired, so he asked the dealer to change the car, but was rejected. In desperation, Liao Yunguo followed judicial procedures. The court found that the dealer had fraudulent sales in the first and second instances, and sentenced the dealer to refund Liao Yunguo's purchase of 131,900 yuan and compensated three times the purchase of 395,700 yuan.
The new car that I just bought home for 2 months actually had "old injuries"
On February 15, 2015, Liao Yunguo purchased a Focus sedan for 131,900 yuan at Hengyang Tianxi Auto Sales Co., Ltd. during cleaning and care. He was told that there were obvious paint repair marks on the front bumper of the vehicle.
What surprised Liao Yunguo was that he had never had an accident in the past two months after buying the car and did not repaint the vehicle. Then, the only possible explanation is that the repainting behavior occurs before the vehicle is purchased. Faced with the "scars" that he had just bought, Liao Yunguo could not accept it. He contacted the dealer manager. After checking, the manager also recognized that the paint of the front bumper on the car had traces of repair. But when Liao Yunguo made a request to replace a new car, he was rejected.
After receiving the complaint, Liu Xiangwei, chairman of Changning Consumer Commission, notified the Yitan Industrial and Commercial Bureau and the Consumer Commission branch of the jurisdiction to immediately launch a preliminary investigation into this.
helplessly, Liao Yunguo went to Changning Consumer Commission to file a complaint on this matter. After grasping the basic situation, the Changning Consumer Commission convened Liao Yunguo and his dealers to mediate. The Consumer Council believes that Liao Yunguo’s claim to replace a new car is reasonable, and the dealer should bear the corresponding responsibility if he is at fault. However, the dealer still refused the request to "change the car", saying that he was only willing to replace the front bumper and provided 10 free premium maintenance. Liao Yunguo could not accept this.
The first round of mediation ended in failure. The staff of Hengyang Consumer Council rushed to Changning and together with the Changning Consumer Council, convened Liao Yunguo and dealers to mediate. During the coordination, the staff patiently and meticulously preached the "Consumer Rights Protection Law" and other relevant laws and regulations to dealers. However, the dealer was still unmoved and the second round of mediation failed.
Consumer litigation rights protection was granted "refund one compensation three"
After multiple mediations were invalid, Liao Yunguo, under the guidance of Hengyang Consumer Committee and Changning Consumer Committee, embarked on the road of litigation rights protection on May 12, 2015.
On December 15, 2015, after a public trial, the Changning Municipal People's Court made a first-instance judgment, determining that the defendant Tianxi Company had committed fraud. According to Article 55 of the "Consumer Rights Protection Law of the People's Republic of China" (hereinafter referred to as the "Consumer Law"): If a dealer provides goods or services in fraud, he shall increase the compensation for the losses suffered in accordance with the consumer's request, and the amount of compensation shall be three times the price of the consumer's purchase of goods or the cost of receiving services. The judgment was made to refund 131,900 yuan of car purchase price and compensate the plaintiff Liao Yunguo for three times the car purchase price.
Tianxi Company based on the "Product Quality Three Guarantee Regulations" and believes that this provision can only be applied to the quality of the vehicles in this case. The plaintiff's losses should only be repaired and restored to its original state, and does not agree to "refund one and three compensations". Dissatisfied with the first-instance judgment, he appealed to Hengyang Intermediate People's Court.
On April 25, 2016, Hengyang Intermediate People's Court held after trial that the "three guarantees" regulations claimed by the defendant "Tianxi" company were only regulations of a department, and its legal effect was lower than the "Electricity Law", and made a final judgment and uphold the original judgment in the first instance.
What does the automobile "refund one and three" consumer rights protection case warn?
Yesterday, at a press conference jointly held by the Hunan Provincial Consumer Commission and the Hengyang Municipal Consumer Commission, the head of the Hunan Provincial Consumer Commission Wu Wei pointed out that as the first automobile "refund one compensation three" consumer rights protection case in Hunan, in this case, with the support of the Consumer Commission, consumers bravely took up legal weapons to protect their legitimate rights and interests, creating another new milestone in the consumer rights protection movement in our province, and set an example for consumers to call for the conscious protection of rights and advocate the protection of rights in accordance with the law.
Xie Weihua, deputy director of Hengyang Municipal Bureau of Industry and Commerce and president of Hengyang Municipal Consumer Council, told reporters that the Municipal Consumer Council will continue to pay attention to the follow-up handling of the case and urge dealers to actively and proactively compensate in accordance with the court's judgment. If compensation is refused, consumers will be supported to apply for compulsory execution to the people's court in accordance with the law.
In addition, the Municipal Consumer Council will take this case as an opportunity to carry out a consumer review activity in the automobile sales and maintenance industry across the city, further increase the publicity of the new "Consumption Law", send the "Consumption Law" to campuses, enterprises, communities, and military camps, and issue typical cases and consumption warnings from time to time, strengthen consumption guidance, and create a good consumption environment for consumers. At the
briefing meeting, the Hunan Provincial Consumer Council issued an initiative to "New Consumption, I Make the Right" to organizations, distributors and consumers in all industries across the province, requiring strengthening industry self-discipline, honesty and trustworthy, and operating in accordance with the law!
In recent years, car sales fraud cases have been common in my country. In 2014, Ningbo consumer Xiao Shi spent nearly 80,000 yuan to buy a pickup truck in a 4S store. During the test drive, he found that the car had a few hundred kilometers more odometer. When he registered, he found that the car had a temporary license plate. Xiao Shi's investigation found that the car was sold to a company and was later returned due to gearbox problems. Xiao Shi asked for a return and exchange of cars, but was rejected by the 4S store. Xiao Shi filed a lawsuit in court. The court ruled that the consumer won the case in the first instance, and the operator refunded one and compensated three. The operator filed an appeal. Finally, the two parties reached an out-of-court settlement, and the 4S store compensated Xiao Shi with 300,000 yuan.
●In August 2012, consumer Mr. Chen spent 470,000 yuan to buy a Land Rover Walker 2 test drive car from a car sales company. The salesperson emphasized that the car has only been registered for three or four months and has not had any collisions, which is almost no different from the new car. In April 2014, when Mr. Chen renewed the vehicle, he found that the vehicle had been in danger in , Wuxi, and repaired it in 4S store in July 2012. Mr. Chen sued the car sales company in court. After the trial, the court held that the car sales company concealed the fact that an accident occurred in the vehicle while selling the car, which constituted sales fraud. Because the purchase agreement is concluded before the implementation of the new Consumer Law, the original Consumer Law will apply the provisions of double compensation, and the automobile sales company will be ordered to refund and compensate one.
●In September 2013, Wang Yi purchased an Outlander JE3A2693 small off-road bus from Tianjin Zhongjin Peixian Automobile Service Co., Ltd. In February 2014, Zhongjin Automobile Company notified Wang Yi that the vehicle should be recalled. On June 4, 2013, Mitsubishi Automobile Sales (China) Co., Ltd. has publicly issued an announcement to recall some imported Outlander cars, with the recalled vehicles including the vehicles purchased by Wang Yi. Wang Yi filed a lawsuit with the Tianjin Binhai New District Court, requesting the refund of the car and compensation for the purchase of the car three times. The first instance court did not support consumer demands. The second instance court held that Zhongjin Automobile Company's sales of vehicle defects concealed and constituted commercial fraud. The vehicle sales behavior in this case occurred before the revision of the Consumer Protection Law, so Zhongjin Automobile Company shall bear the legal responsibility of refunding one compensation.
How to enhance consumer awareness of rights protection
The Consumer Rights Protection Law stipulates that "operators will refund one and compensate three for fraudulent sales"
Article 55 If an operator provides goods or services for fraud, he shall increase the compensation for the losses suffered in accordance with the consumer's request, and the amount of compensation increased is three times the price of the consumer's purchase of goods or the cost of receiving services; if the amount of compensation increased is less than 500 yuan, it is 500 yuan. If otherwise provided by law, it shall be in accordance with such provisions.
"Measures for Punishment of Acts Infringing on Consumer Rights and Interests" stipulates that "the twenty-one behaviors of operators are clearly stipulated as fraudulent sales"
Article 5 Operators shall not engage in the following behaviors for providing goods or services:
(I) The goods sold or the services provided do not meet the requirements for protecting personal and property safety;
(II) Sales of invalid or deteriorated goods;
(III) Sales of goods that forged the origin, forged or used other people's factory names, factory addresses, and tampered with the production date;
(IV) Sales of goods that forged or used quality marks such as punishment for acts that infringe on consumer rights;
(V) Sales of goods sold or provided Infringe upon the exclusive right of others to register trademarks;
(VI) Selling goods that forged or impersonate the names, packaging and decorations of well-known products;
(VIII) Doping and adulteration in the goods sold, using fakes as real, using inferior as good, and impersonating qualified products as qualified products;
(VIII) Selling goods that the state explicitly eliminates and stops selling;
(IX) Dedicating unqualified measuring instruments or destruction of the accuracy of measuring instruments in goods or services;
(10) Deceiving consumers' prices or fees without providing or failing to provide goods or services as agreed.
Article 6 Operators shall provide consumers with information about goods or services truthful, comprehensive and accurate, and shall not engage in the following false or misleading publicity behaviors:
(I) Do not provide goods or services with real names and marks;
(II) Sell goods or services in false or misleading product descriptions, product standards, physical samples, etc.;
(III) Make false or misleading on-site explanations and demonstrations;
(IV) Use fictitious transactions, false price transaction volumes, false comments or hiring others to induce deceptive sales;
(IV) Use fictitious transactions, false price transaction volumes, false comments or hiring others to induce deceptive sales;
(IV) Use fictitious transactions, false price transaction volumes, false comments or hiring others to induce deceptive sales;
(IV) Use fictitious transactions, false price transaction volumes, false comments or hiring others to induce deceptive sales;
(IV) Use fictitious transactions, false price transaction volumes, false comments or hiring others to induce deceptive sales; 2
(V) Sales goods or services with false "clearance price", "sell price", "lowest price", "preferential price" or other deceptive prices;
(VI) Sales goods or services by false "price sales", "repayment sales", "experience sales" and other methods;
(VIII) Misleading consumers by false "price sales", "return sales", "experience sales" and other products;
(VIII) Misleading consumers by other false or misleading publicity methods.
Article 13 Operators engaged in the service industry shall not engage in the following behaviors:
(I) Operators engaged in providing repair, processing, installation, decoration and other services to consumers falsely report on the use of materials, intentionally damage or replace parts or materials, use parts or materials that do not meet national quality standards or are inconsistent with the agreement, replace parts that do not need to be replaced, or cut corners or charge fees, which harm consumers' rights and interests;
(II) Operators engaged in intermediary services such as house rental, housekeeping services, etc. provide false information or use deception, malicious collusion and other means to damage consumers' rights and interests.
Article 16 If an operator commits such an act as stipulated in Article 5, Paragraphs (1) to (6) of these Measures and cannot prove that he has not deceived or misled consumers and commits such acts, it is a fraudulent act.
If an operator commits any of the acts stipulated in Article 5, paragraphs (7) to (10), articles six and 13 of these Measures, it is a fraudulent act.
