Buy imported milk powder and imported baby food supplements online, find someone online to buy pancakes and milk skins, and spend thousands of dollars to buy old wine &hellip, which originated in Taiwan, China; … These sales and purchases, which seem normal to many Internet "aborigines" at present, are actually dangerous behind them.
On September 3rd, the reporter of China Youth Daily and China Youth Network learned from the White Paper on Trial of Food Safety Cases issued by Shanghai No.3 Intermediate People’s Court that online food safety disputes have now accounted for 64.4% of all civil cases involving food safety accepted by the hospital. Among them, more than 50% of the cases involved imported food, for example, the imported food sold by food business operators failed to pass the quarantine inspection by the national entry-exit inspection and quarantine department in accordance with the provisions of the Food Safety Law of People’s Republic of China (PRC). The phenomenon of selling imported food without inspection and quarantine in the name of "Daigou" is "more common".
"Purchasing" milk powder does not go through customs? Ten times compensation can’t escape
In one month, Xu bought a total of 4,680 yuan of Japanese milk powder in the Taobao shopping store opened by Shao for three times. No Chinese labels were found on the outer packaging of these milk powders. Xu later sued Shao for "one refund and ten compensation" on the grounds that the purchased goods "did not meet China’s food safety standards". The court of first instance ruled that Shao returned Xu’s purchase price of 4680 yuan and compensated 46800 yuan, and Xu returned the purchased milk powder. Shao refused to accept the appeal and appealed to Shanghai No.3 Intermediate People’s Court. The court of second instance dismissed the appeal and upheld the original judgment.
Yao Jianzhong, president of the Civil Court of Shanghai No.3 Intermediate People’s Court, told the reporter that in the case of purchasing imported food tried by the court, most of the defendants had put forward the defense that "purchasing is not selling", but in most cases, these purchasing behaviors were recognized by the court as sales behaviors.
The court found that the relationship between Shao and Xu was a sales contract, not a "purchasing relationship". Shao released milk powder information on the online platform, which clearly marked the goods as "spot" and all the orders involved were shipped from Zhejiang Province. Therefore, the court presumed that Shao had the "ownership" of the milk powder involved. Shao’s self-proclaimed purchasing behavior is actually a "spot buying and selling behavior". According to the Regulation on the Supervision and Administration of Quality and Safety of Dairy Products, dairy sellers have the obligation to check the incoming goods, verify suppliers and prohibit the purchase of unlabeled dairy products. In this case, the milk powder involved in the case sold by an online shop in Shao did not meet the above requirements.
According to the Food Safety Law, imported food shall pass the inspection by the inspection and quarantine institutions, and the customs shall release it with the customs clearance certificate issued by the entry-exit inspection and quarantine institutions. Imported prepackaged foods shall have Chinese labels and instructions. The manufacturer and formula shall be registered and certified, the import shall be subject to strict inspection and quarantine, and the products sold shall meet the national milk powder quality standards.
These milk powders sold by Shao entered the country by overseas mail, without customs inspection and quarantine. Japan, the place of production, is an unregistered access area. The outer packaging has neither Chinese labels nor instructions, nor relevant supporting documents that meet China’s national standards, and does not meet the provisions of the Food Safety Law.
Jian Yao introduced that in real life, there are many such purchasing cases, which should attract the attention of consumers, purchasing agents and online shopping third-party platforms.
Small workshop food and illegal additive food can still be sold.
Zhang Moumou specializes in selling Xinjiang native products on Taobao. In two months’ time, he sold 42 copies of "Authentic apocynum tea of Xinjiang Specialty" to Wang Moumou, totaling 2068.85 yuan. But not long after, he was sued by Wang Moumou for violating the food safety law, and the other party asked him to "return one and lose ten". Both the first trial and the second trial supported Wang’s petition.
The food safety law stipulates that the state implements a licensing system for food production and operation, and food safety standards should include requirements for labels, signs and instructions related to food safety requirements such as hygiene and nutrition, that is, food production and sales should be licensed in advance according to law, and the license should be marked on the pre-packaging of food.
In this case, the "apocynum tea" sold in Zhang Moumou has no food business license or other signs, and belongs to unlicensed food. Zhang Moumou proposed in the second trial that the apocynum tea belongs to health food. The "apocynum tea" he sells has neither the approval number of health care products nor the logo of food business license, which violates the provisions of the Food Safety Law.
The court held that Zhang Moumou, as an operator, failed to fulfill the obligation of incoming goods inspection and sold unlicensed food, which belonged to the act of selling food knowing that it did not meet the food safety standards, thus supporting the consumer’s petition.
In another case, consumer Jiang spent 5,600 yuan to buy two bottles of "Golden Gate Sorghum Gold Foil Wine (Limited Issue)" from Taiwan, China in a Taobao shop opened by a liquor company in Tangshan. But when he gave the wine to his friend, he was told by his friend that gold foil was not a food additive and was not allowed to be added to food. The Ministry of Health clearly stipulates that gold foil shall not be used as food raw materials and food additives, and it is forbidden to add gold foil to food. The plaintiff demanded "one refund and ten compensation".
Shanghai No.3 Intermediate People’s Court believes that the law stipulates that "food" refers to all kinds of finished products and raw materials for human consumption or drinking, as well as articles that are traditionally both food and Chinese herbal medicines, but does not include articles for therapeutic purposes. The commodity involved in this case is liquor, not food. However, gold foil is neither a raw material for alcoholic food production, nor can it be eaten as a food additive, so it is an illegal additive. The court upheld the plaintiff’s claim.
Yao Jianzhong told the reporter that in the actual judgment process of Shanghai No.3 Intermediate People’s Court, in addition to many cases where the actual theme of online shopping is inconsistent with the online registration entity, the sale of homemade food without a food business license, and the sale of food that has been identified as unqualified, "many cases still appear on the Internet after media reports and penalties imposed by relevant departments."
The supervision of third-party online shopping platforms is lax, and administrative supervision is still lacking.
China’s food safety law stipulates that if the provider of the third-party platform for online food trading fails to register the real name of the online food business operator, examine the license, or fails to perform the obligations such as reporting and stopping providing online trading platform services, in addition to bearing the corresponding administrative responsibilities, the legitimate rights and interests of consumers are damaged, and they shall be jointly and severally liable with the food business operator.
According to the data held by Shanghai No.3 Intermediate People’s Court, the number of food safety cases currently occurring in online shopping channels is much larger than that in the field of physical transactions, and there have been problems such as food that has been identified as not meeting food safety standards still being sold publicly, selling homemade food without food production and operation license, and illegally selling health food, which "reflects the prominent problems existing in the food sales field of third-party online shopping platforms, and also reflects the shortcomings of third-party online shopping platforms in implementing regulatory responsibilities and fulfilling regulatory obligations".
The trial of the case also reflected that there are still weak links in the supervision of food sales on the online shopping platform by the administrative supervision department. In related cases, the number of subjects who produce and sell foods that do not meet food safety standards is relatively small. Objectively speaking, Internet transactions do bring difficulties to administrative supervision because of their large transaction volume, rapid commodity circulation and wide circulation range.
The court suggested that relevant departments establish a national unified credit file for food production and operation enterprises, and establish a food safety information platform based on big data analysis to improve the effectiveness of food safety supervision. (China Youth Daily China Youth Network reporter Wang Yujie)
