On April 11, the newspaper published a report on "The mortuary charges of the third hospital of Beijing Medical University are too outrageous", which aroused widespread concern in the society.
In response to the four types of unreasonable "high-priced funeral expenses" in the funeral industry, the judge of the Beijing Fourth Intermediate People's Court provided some suggestions.
When encountering unknowing but being "consumed"
Consumers are only informed of the relevant service content when they have finished paying the funeral.
According to the "Civil Code", an effective civil juristic act should have a true expression of will, and a civil juristic act with inconsistent expressions of the parties' will is invalid.
The parties to the contract have already started to perform the actual performance, and the parties can either continue to make up for the formalities for entering into the contract, or they can stop entering into the contract.
The property acquired by one or both parties as a result of accepting the performance shall be returned to the other party, and the party who is at fault if the contract is not established shall compensate the other party for the economic loss.
That is to say, because the consumer did not choose to express his true intention to purchase the service, this part of the contract was not established from the beginning, and the consumer did not need to bear the corresponding payment obligation.
When encountering fraudulent consumption
Some funeral companies only show the service items but not the price when providing services, maliciously and vaguely describe the service content and service price, and the price will start depending on the identity of the family members after the completion of all the ceremonies.
According to Article 8 of the "Consumer Protection Law", consumers have the right to know the real situation of the goods they buy or use or the services they receive.
Consumers have the right to request the operator to provide the price, place of origin, producer, use, performance, specification, grade, main ingredients, production date, expiration date, inspection certificate, instruction manual, After-sales service, or service content, specifications, costs, etc.
Some businesses do not inform relevant services and standards in advance, resulting in information asymmetry and infringing on the right to know of funeral service consumers. It is a fraudulent act. Consumers have the right to request the court or arbitration institution to revoke the consumption behavior if they violate their true intentions. .
When encountering bundled consumption
Some merchants bundle and sell high-priced flowers, shrouds, elegiac couplets, etc. in the necessary services such as mortuary, cleaning, and transportation, otherwise they will not provide services; or force consumers to buy "one-stop service", otherwise they will be obstructed at all links and will be used in various ways. This ominous rhetoric embarrassed consumers and forced them to buy additional funeral supplies.
Article 150 of the "Civil Code" stipulates that if a party or a third party uses coercion to cause the other party to carry out a civil juristic act contrary to its true will, the coerced party has the right to request the people's court or arbitration institution to revoke it.
Therefore, if the funeral business uses the necessary services as a coercive method to make the consumer enter into a consumption contract against his true intention, the consumer has the right to request the court or arbitration institution to revoke the contract.
When a merchant illegally practices price monopoly
Individual funeral companies fail to sell funeral products or services at government pricing. Since government pricing is not a mandatory requirement of laws and administrative regulations, the consumer contract itself is not invalid.
According to Article 41 of the "Price Law", if a business operator causes consumers or other business operators to overpay the price due to an illegal price act, the overpaid portion shall be refunded; if any damage is caused, the operator shall be liable for compensation according to law.
If consumers overpay as a result, they can request administrative departments and consumer associations to intervene in supervision.
If it is found that price monopoly infringes upon the legitimate rights and interests of many consumers, the Consumers Association should also actively perform the statutory duty of public interest litigation.
Our reporter Lin Jing correspondent Qin Jin