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The Trade Descriptions (Unfair Trade Practices) (Amendment) Ordinance 2012 (the Ordinance) came into effect on Friday.存倉 The coverage of the newly-revised consumer rights protection bylaw has been extended from retail items to services as well, targeting in particular false descriptions of goods and services, misleading omissions, aggressive commercial practices, bait advertising, bait and switch, and wrongly accepting payment.Hong Kong is well-known for its well-developed retail and services industry and has earned the reputation as a “shopper’s paradise” with a full set of laws and regulations to protect consumers’ rights and interests. However, some wayward business owners sought to profit from loopholes and gray areas in the statutory structure by deceiving, misleading and/or trapping consumers over the years, causing serious damage to the reputation of Hong Kong’s retail and services industry. The latest revision of the Ordinance aims to win back consumer trust by plugging the loopholes and cracking down on unfair trade practices such as listed above to boost consumption and tourism.Before the revision the Ordinance only covered retail goods; allowing some morally corrupt service providers to rip off consumers by all kinds of malpractices. There were many publicized cases where angry consumers complained about beauty parlor staff members putting tens or even hundr自存倉ds of thousands of dollars in service charges for “package treatment” on customers’ credit cards before the latter had time to think it over. And the service contracts usually contained numerous unfair terms and conditions designed to deny criminal liability and avoid compensation for the customer in case of legal dispute. Consumer Council records show the watchdog received more than 27,000 individual consumer complaints against service providers as well as retailers, of which more than 3,700 were accused of unfair trade practices cited above. These were the main reasons for the introduction of the revised Ordinance. It is expected to serve adequate deterrence to businesses against fraudulent practices with a maximum fine of HK$500,000 and five years behind bars.However, the revised Ordinance still contains some gray areas that make it hard to determine whether a business has indeed violated the law. The Customs and Excise Department, which is responsible for enforcing the Ordinance, will need to spot such imperfections and handle them properly case by case.This is an excerpted translation of a Hong Kong Commercial Daily editorial published on July 19.The opinions expressed on this page do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily. Readers’ comments are welcome. Please send your e-mail to opinion@chinadailyhk.com. China Daily reserves the right to edit all letters.迷你倉新蒲崗