China retailers face food vigilantes

1. Xue Yanfeng has now filed 40 lawsuits against supermarkets and retailers for violating food safety laws.

2. Under Chinese law, it is no longer the case that a victimized customer has to prove personal injury or loss to receive compensation.

3. Xue has found raisins with no nutritional labels, potato chips with proscribed additives, and biscuits with multiple production dates.

4. In the past 18 months, he has been awarded somewhat over $10,000 in compensation, plus there are 18 other settled cases where compensation was not disclosed.

5. Some provincial reports indicate that 80 to 90 percent of food safety complaints are from “specialist” plaintiffs.

China, of course, has had notoriously lax food safety practices in the past.  So might the actions of these individuals be efficiency-enhancing?  But more than 2/3 of the cases are based on labeling mistakes.

The above is from Bloomberg News.

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