Council wants to amend law targeting beauty salons

The Consumer Council (CC) said that it will soon amend the Consumer Protection Law following residents’ complaints about beauty salons’ aggressive sales tactics.

CC receives an average of 40 complaints every year about disputes with local beauty clinics, mostly regarding sales tactics.

In a TDM Radio phone- in program, a customer said, “They are very pushy in terms of selling their beauty treatments. They will individually approach you to keep convincing you to pay them money in advance for the treatment.”

The head of the council’s Consumer Dispute Resolution Center, Au Weng Tong, said that the consumer law would likely be amended and that it may require a cooling-off period for pre-paid beauty treatments.

“The public consultation had shown that the majority of opinions are supporting this. According to my understanding, our legal team has been following relevant law amendment,” he said.

There are currently no regulations for the sales and marketing activities of beauty salons and cosmetic clinics, some of which require consumers to pay in advance for a series of treatments.

Leong Pui San, Chief of the Health Bureau’s Licensing Department, stressed that all procedures that are considered to be medical practices must be operated by licensed doctors.

She also explained the risks of certain cosmetic procedures.

“Shortwave frequency hair removal could be listed as a low-risk level [which], according to our standard, doesn’t have to be regulated. But there are other treatments that are not yet very common in Macau such as colon cleansing and hair transplants.”