HONG KONG: A sales supervisor at a Hong Kong jewellery store where a tourist was allegedly beaten before he died in hospital last month was arrested by customs officers yesterday in connection with an alleged case of forced shopping.
It is the first arrest of its kind relating to forced shopping in a registered store after the city’s trade descriptions law was extended to services in 2013, according to a source with knowledge of the investigation.
At least four others – the director of the jewellery company, a mainland tour escort, a local tour guide and another shop employee – were being sought by customs officers in connection with the case, said the source.
The arrest of the Hong Kong woman, 59, was made when about 30 officers from the Customs and Excise Department’s unfair trade practices investigation unit raided the D2 jewellery shop in Hung Hom yesterday.
The department launched an investigation after a mainland tourist filed a complaint to the Travel Industry Council claiming she was forced to make a purchase in the shop on October 3.
A local travel agency – Tian Ma International (Hong Kong) Travel – hosted her tour group in Hong Kong. It is understood the agency also hosted another tour group that included mainland visitor Miao Chunqi, 54, who died after he was allegedly assault in the D2 jewellery shop in Hung Hom on October 19.
“The victim claimed that she did not want to make any purchases but she was allegedly subjected to harassment and coercion to spend more than HK$2,000 to buy an ornament,” said Hui Wai-ming, who heads the investigation unit.
He said the use of harassment, coercion or undue influence to impair a consumer’s freedom of choice or conduct contravened the Trade Descriptions Ordinance and carried a maximum penalty of five years’ imprisonment and a HK$500,000 fine.
The supervisor was still being held for questioning in the afternoon and had not been charged.
The council said on its website that it “will never allow tourist guides to coerce visitors into making purchases or infringe the interests of visitors”.
The council – the industry’s regulatory body – received 25 complaints from mainland tourists in September, a 31.6 per cent rise from the same month last year. The council handled 167 complaints from mainland tourists between January and August this year.
Miao died at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Yau Ma Tei on October 20, a day after he was left unconscious in an alleged attack by four men at the D2 jewellery shop while trying to mediate in a dispute between a fellow visitor – his female colleague – and their mainland tour guide.
He and his colleague were part of a mainland tour group that had arrived in the city for a three-day trip on October 18.
