Supermarket chain outlets fined for overcharging delivery fees
Officials make an inspection at a Century Hualian store.
Inspectors check delivery fees being charged by one of the Century Hualian outlets.
Two outlets of supermarket chain Century Hualian have been fined by Shanghai's market regulators for cashing in on the COVID-19 pandemic resurgence and charging unreasonable delivery fees for online orders, the Shanghai Administration for Market Regulation announced on Wednesday.
The Xizang Road N. outlet of the supermarket chain in Jing'an District was found to have hiked its delivery fees to between 88 yuan (US$13.84) and 188 yuan per order on March 27-28 from 15 yuan normally, the administration revealed.
Forty-four orders under the raised charges were distributed, with delivery fees totaling 4,872 yuan.
In total, 856.5 yuan were paid to delivery workers with the rest deemed as illegal profit, according to the administration.
As a result, the supermarket was hit with a fine of 20,078 yuan, five times its illegal profit.
It was ordered to return the illegal profit to consumers and fix the irregularity.
In another case, the Liuzhou Road outlet of the supermarket chain in Xuhui District was fined 4,423 yuan for similar actions.
They both violated China's pricing regulations and involved price gouging, according to the administration.
Officials make an inspection at an outlet of Century Hualian.
