Bakery chain fined after being caught illegally providing plastic shopping bags five times

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     A-1 Bakery has been successfully prosecuted by the Environmental Protection Department after its chain stores were repeatedly caught providing plastic shopping bags (PSBs) to customers illegally. The bakery chain was fined $5,000 by the Eastern Magistrates' Courts today (August 14) for contravening the Product Eco-responsibility Ordinance (PERO).

     An EPD spokesman said that it was the first case in which criminal proceedings were initiated against a large retail chain for contravening the PERO since the full implementation of PSB charging in April 2015.

     During an inspection at a retail point in March last year, EPD staff found that its chain store located at the Hong Kong International Airport failed to comply with the legal requirement to charge a customer for the PSB provided for a bottle of non-chilled water. A fixed penalty notice was issued and the store was fined $2,000. During another surprise check at the store in March this year, EPD officers once again found that the store illegally provided a PSB to a customer for free. After investigation and evidence gathering, the EPD initiated prosecution against the chain retailer. According to the enforcement record of the EPD, three other stores of the bakery had been found to have violated the law before, and the EPD had issued fixed penalty notices to the bakery in each case.

     The spokesman said that in general large-scale chain retailers employ a large number of front-line staff and new recruits. It is the responsibility of the retailers to provide proper guidelines and training to ensure that all the staff understand the requirements of the law.

     The spokesman reminded all retailers that under the PERO, sellers have to charge customers not less than 50 cents for each PSB directly or indirectly provided for the retail sale of goods, except in situations where there is an exemption. Retailers contravening the requirements are liable to a fixed penalty of $2,000 or even prosecution proceedings for repeated or serious contraventions, with offenders liable to a maximum fine of $100,000. From April 2015 to the end of July this year, the EPD officers have conducted more than 88 000 inspections at different retail points, with 406 fixed penalty notices being issued to retailers who contravened the charging requirements. Fifteen cases involved prosecution proceedings.

Ends/Monday, August 14, 2017
Issued at HKT 17:22

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