- Business Law in a Minute（秒懂经济法）
- 蔡玮律
- 1160字
- 2023-08-25 11:19:57
Story 4 When Can You Receive Three-Fold Compensation?
Fradulent Sales
The son of the factory owner, Lu, had fallen in love with Lily at first sight. To woo her, he decided to buy her a car for her birthday.
Lily was extremely moved by his gesture and offered to go on a date with him. They decided to take the new car for a drive and go for a picnic lunch.
Halfway to their destination, the car started spewing out smoke and shaking violently. Lu stopped the car immediately to see if there was a problem. The engine had overheated, which was a very unlikely situation for a new car. They were too afraid to keep going so Lu decided to call the mechanic over to repair the car.
"It seems like your engine has overheated." The mechanic told Lu.
"Yes, thanks for stating the obvious. Why did this happen? This is a brand new car." Lu replied impatiently.
"Is this a new car? The engine is not new. In fact, according to my experience, the engine has been used for over 5 years." The mechanic said sluggishly.
"Impossible. I bought this a few days ago. Are you deliberately saying this in front of my girlfriend to embarrass me?" Lu was starting to get angry and humiliated.
"In fact, the only things new about this car are the seats, these two wheels on this side and this door. Trust me. I have repaired more cars than you have driven. The wheels on the other side are 5 years old, and so are the doors. You have been sold a refurbished car. I can bet you 100 Yuan that you got this for a discount." The mechanic confidently replied.
"Yes, I did get this off for a 30% off discount. How do you know this?" Lu was shocked.
"Some car shops buy broken cars and repair them by changing the broken parts, giving them a new paint coating and selling them at a discount. This car was probably involved in an accident and got sent to the scrapper, but was rescued by your car shop because they thought that it could be sold as new again. I suggest you not to drive in this again and take it back." The mechanic gave Lu a pat on the shoulder.
Lu was extremly angry and called the salesman immediately, but the salesman denied selling him a used car and certainly did not agree to take the car back.
What can Lu do?
Law in a Minute
When you buy a new car, you expect a brand new one, not one that has been in a crash nor used before. When you are buying a second-hand car, any information about accidents and repairs will influence your decision. In fact, I am sure you would also like to know how many years your car has been on the road for and how many miles it has travelled.
The shop deliberately sold Lu a crashed car as a new car. This act infringed Lu's right to information. Lu signed the contract based on the false and incomplete information that the car shop supplied. As a result, the court will rule this contract as a revocable contract, as long as Lu takes the case to the court within a year's time. Lu will be able to return the car and get a full refund.
Apart from a refund, Lu shall also be entitled to a compensation of three times the amount he paid for the car as well.
We are at an inferior position due to lack of relevant professional knowledge and market information when compared with the salesman. That person sells cars for a living! Apart from the mechanic, who would know that the motor was used for 5 years? To be honest, I would not be able to distinguish between a V-12 engine and a normal car engine. The Consumer Protection Law entitles consumers to a three-fold compensation if one, the purpose of the buying the goods is for daily use, and two, fraud is committed during the sale.
Lu purchased the car for his girlfriend, for leisure use, not for business operation or production, and the salesman deliberately concealed the truth about the car and tricked him into buying a used car. Therefore, if he bought the car for a hundred thousand Yuan, he can receive an extra three hundred thousand Yuan in addition to the one hundred thousand Yuan refund.
Legal Basis
Consumer Protection Law of the People's Republic of China
Article 2
This law protects the rights and interests of consumers purchasing or using goods or accepting services which they need; where this law does not make provisions, they are protected by other relevant laws and regulations.
Article 20
Business operators shall provide consumers with true and complete information on traits such as the quality, performance, use, and duration of goods or services; and must not conduct any false or misleading publicity.
Business operators shall provide truthful and clear answers to questions from consumers regarding the quality and usage of their goods or services they provided.
Business operators shall clearly mark the prices of goods or services they provide.
Article 23
Business operators shall guarantee the quality, performance, use, and effective period for goods or services they provided in circumstances of their normal use or receipt, except where consumers knew of existing defects before purchasing the goods or receiving the services and the existence of the defects does not violate the mandatory legal provisions.
Business operators who indicate the quality of goods or service by means such as advertising, product instructions or samples, shall guarantee that the actual quality of the goods or services they provide is consistent with the quality indicated.
Where business operators provide durable goods such as motor vehicles, computers, televisions, refrigerators, air conditioners, or washing machines, or services such as redecoration and remodelling, and consumers discover defects within six months of receiving the goods or services causing a dispute, the business operators bear the burden of proof regarding the defects.
Article 55
Where business operators fraudulently provide goods or services, they shall follow consumers' requests to increase the compensation for their losses, with the increased compensation being three times the price paid by a consumer for purchased goods or the services received, or 500 yuan if the increase as calculated before is less than 500 yuan, except as otherwise provided for by the law. Where the law provides otherwise, follow those provisions.
Where business operators clearly know goods or services are defective but still continue to provide them to consumers, causing death or serious damage to the heath of consumers or other victims, the victims shall have the right to demand business operators compensate them for losses in accordance with Articles 49 and 51 of this Law and other provisions of laws, and have the right to demand punitive compensation up to double the amount of losses incurred.
