Breaches of rights face probes

The State Administration for Market Regulation has launched investigations after examples of serious breaches of consumer rights were aired on a China Central Television program on Friday.

The program, which aired on China Central Television on Friday — the 42nd World Consumer Rights Day — showed shocking cases of food safety violations and false advertising.

The State Administration for Market Regulation said it will carry out special law enforcement actions with other departments targeting these sectors.

In one case, companies in Anhui province were using low-quality pork containing lymph nodes to produce prefabricated dishes.

The market supervision bureau of Fuyang, Anhui, issued a notice on Friday stating that they have formed a joint investigation team and sealed off the involved companies, as well as their finished products, semi-finished products, and raw materials on-site.

The legal representatives of the companies have been summoned by the police for investigation.

The food safety commission under the State Council, the State Administration for Market Regulation, and the ministries of public security and agriculture and rural affairs recently decided to carry out a nationwide crackdown on crimes involving meat products this year.

Si Guang, director of the food safety coordination department of the State Administration for Market Regulation, said that in recent years, the quality and safety of meat products in China have continued to improve. However, illegal acts still occur in some areas, disrupting market order and threatening public health.

The crackdown will focus on pigs, cattle, sheep and chickens. It will dig into the sources of illegal acts and rectify the chain of livestock and poultry breeding, slaughtering and meat production.

In another case, the program exposed false advertising for Tinghua liquor produced by a company in Yibin, Sichuan province.

The liquor appeared on the market in 2020, with the top price of each bottle reaching 58,600 yuan ($8,250).

The advertisements displayed in one of its stores claimed that this liquor has effects such as enhancing immunity, improving sleep, ensuring male erectile function, regulating physiological disorders and slowing aging.

However, these advertisements violated the Advertising Law, according to the program.

Furthermore, the company claimed that the liquor's health benefits were internationally patented. However, it was found that the company had only submitted an application for a patent, which has yet to be approved.

Authorities in Yibin are investigating the company. Multiple e-commerce platforms have removed the liquor, and its WeChat account has been blocked.

According to the State Administration for Market Regulation, market supervision departments in Sichuan and Beijing investigated the production and sale of the liquor by enterprises and stores, confiscated 36,225 bottles of such liquor along with approximately 60,000 sets of packaging and 318 pieces of magazines, and sampled four types of liquor for inspection.

They also ordered merchants to immediately suspend sales of the brand and related products and launched an investigation into the publication of Tinghua liquor-related content by the magazine China Food.