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Recently, the investigation found that in the field of leisure and fitness, education and training, some businesses use prepaid consumer fraud, rolled up money to run away from the situation is not uncommon, many of which there is the figure of the professional shoplifters - they “help” poorly run organizations to plan a good They “help” poorly run organizations to plan the closure of the store, run away method, and take over to deal with the subsequent rights issues; through the reorganization of the customer service team, lower expectations, inducing consumers to accept the unfair program.

Accordingly, Mr. Ge Youshan, Executive Director/Founding Partner of JAVY law firm, was interviewed by Rule of Law Daily to explain such incidents.

Helping people close store to avoid responsibility

Serious damage to the market order

The hotspots of consumer rights protection opinions in the first half of 2024 released by the China Consumers' Association show that professional store closers have become an obstacle to prepaid consumer rights protection.

Investigation found that some professional shoplifters openly do business on social platforms.

There are accounts in the name of “training institution teacher” constantly released “transfer legal person, 3 days to 5 days to hand over, for the principal to avoid liability” “Currently your training institution business situation is good? The training organization is in debt for millions of dollars, not much money in hand, how can I quickly transfer? Training institutions have not eliminated too many hours, can not eliminate and transfer how to do” and other content posts, and with ‘transfer of institutions’, ‘debt’, ”countdown to closure of stores “ “Institutional transformation” and other topics labeled to provide store transfer advice, and even said that the scope of business “can cover the whole country”.

Through an art training institution owner of the identity of the consultation, a customer service staff said that “one day earlier the transfer of one day less loss”, they help to transfer to the hand of the money than to find someone to take over the money can be several times more, even if the store loss can be transferred, a few days will be able to complete the legal entity transfer handover work for the store owner to avoid liability.

The customer service vowed to ensure that: “in Hunan, Hebei, Henan, Guangdong, Jiangsu and other parts of the country, we provide online counseling to understand the basic situation, have their own ‘way’ to find the transfer of the receiver, the price can also be negotiable, there are liabilities of the company can also help to change hands. ”

These professional closers will ask the owner to provide detailed information on the size of the store area, cost (decoration, deposit, rent, etc.), address, existing customers, the cost of storage of customers who have not consumed, the type of business license, grid structure (the number of employees of the organization, as well as the cost of labor) and other information. A nickname for the “National Training Operations Manager” “transfer store teacher” said that the need to charge 1500 yuan of intermediary fees, and according to the transfer price of 10% commission.

Some industry insiders pointed out that the owner of the store and professional closed store after a beat, the next is a set of similar processes: merchants run away, the so-called “investors” to the customer to find a transfer agency, claiming that they will be responsible for the customer, they first proposed a transfer program, requiring customers to pay an additional fee to transfer the class, if the transfer program fails, because of a number of “contradictions” continue to delay the processing of unconsumed fees, and ultimately claimed that the legal representative has been replaced, they do not have to bear the legal responsibility of the old company, not to be refunded, and ultimately do not settle the matter.

“There are also some organizations that will ring up another sum of money before running away, and there are even organizations that go through the cancellation process and complete the cancellation, but still hold promotional activities, and then directly close up store and disappear for reasons such as hygiene rectification and fire rectification.” The insider said.

GeYouShan lawyers believe that the business before running away to circle the money is aware of their own inability to fulfill their contractual obligations, still through the organization of activities to obtain consumer funds, the behavior may constitute fraud. This behavior seriously infringes on the legitimate rights and interests of consumers and undermines the market order.

Ge Youshan lawyer introduced, professional closed store people through the transfer of assets, change the main body of business, dissolution of employees and other behavior, with the intention of helping the original operator to avoid legal responsibility, may constitute an abuse of the independent status of the company's legal person and its limited liability situation, which leads to the denial of the company's legal personality, the original operator should still be jointly and severally liable for the company's debts.

“If the original shareholders have the subjective malicious intent to avoid capital contribution and debt, and realize the golden shell through the share transfer, resulting in the company's registered capital is not real, and damage the interests of the company's creditors, the original shareholders should still bear the legal responsibility.” Ge Youshan lawyer said.

Establishment of a mechanism for tracing responsibility

Effective deterrence of severe punishment in accordance with the law

In the field of prepaid consumption institutions closed store frequently, involving a large amount of money, many consumers face the situation of no way to protect their rights.

July 1 this year, the implementation of the Protection of Consumer Rights and Interests Law Regulations, strengthened the obligations of prepaid consumer field operators. Increased “operators appear major business risks to stop charging prepayment” requirements and “the operator decided to close down or relocation of service venues,” the obligation to inform in advance, which helps to standardize the prepaid consumer market order, to maintain a level playing field.

In Ge Youshan's opinion, the regulation and combating of professional closed store behavior, the need for concerted efforts from all sides. First of all, the legal responsibility for professional closed store behavior should be further clarified to ensure the operability of the law. Specific clauses on false cancellation, malicious transfer and other behaviors can be added to increase the cost of violation of the law. Secondly, a cross-sectoral joint disciplinary mechanism should be established to include occupational shoplifters in the list of executors who have lost their credibility and to restrict them from engaging in business activities in related industries. Once again, law enforcement efforts should be stepped up. Market supervision departments and public security organs should intensify their efforts to crack down on professional shoplifters, establish a rapid response mechanism, and promptly investigate and deal with enterprises and individuals suspected of violating the law. Information sharing between market supervision departments around the world should be realized through informatization means to improve the monitoring and early warning capability of professional shop-closing behaviors.

“Convenient channels for complaints and rights defense should also be established, such as special hotlines and online platforms to facilitate timely feedback from consumers.” Lawyer Ge Youshan suggested establishing a liability tracing mechanism to ensure that even after a company is canceled or transferred, the original operator and professional shoplifters are still legally liable for their actions. For professional closers suspected of fraud, false write-offs and other serious offenses, they should be held criminally liable in accordance with the law in order to form an effective deterrent.