Street sales to face stricter regulations

The Macau SAR government intends to establish stricter regulations against street selling in order to protect consumers.
Yesterday, the local government presented the fourth version of the amendment of the Consumer Protection Law for the hearing of the First Standing Committee of the Legislative Assembly (AL).
The government has accepted the opinions of AL legal advisors and lawmakers in regard to some of the prescriptions of the law.
The lawmakers’ major concern during yesterday’s hearing was related to two kinds of sales: infrequent sales and sales taking place outside of an establishment. The former includes business events such as exhibition sales and stalls sales and the latter refers to instantaneous marketing and street sales without a vendor, stall, facility, location or physical premises for the business. A sale made by promoting personnel inside people’s houses falls within the second category.
The aforementioned two categories were not independent chapters in the first three versions of the law amendment. In this latest version of the law, these two categories are prescribed in independent chapters.
In respect of sales taking place outside of an establishment (street sales and door-to-door sales), the government is requiring goods and services providers to give more background information to the government when registering their businesses.
Buyers in the case of street sales and door-to-door sales can nullify a contract of sale with suppliers within seven days without restriction, meaning buyers can refund a service or good within one week without having to give a reason.
In regards to infrequent sales, such as exhibitions and vendor sales, product suppliers must inform the government about imminent business. However, the restrictions will be lenient compared to street sales.
In addition, the law also dictates that once consumers purchase coupons or vouchers from any product supplier, the two parties are considered to be involved in an effective consumer relationship and any related behaviors are law-binding.
The Chairman of the AL committee Ho Ion Sang said that the government does not want to set up unnecessary restrictions toward infrequent sales, especially exhibition sales, because Macau is attempting to develop the relevant industry.
The consumer protection law was preliminarily passed at the AL in March last year. Following yesterday’s AL hearing, the committee will continue meeting with government representatives regarding further articles.