Fast food restaurants selling fruit fishing were claimed, and the court ruled that the informant’s profit was unjust and should be returned.

A fast food restaurant in Dongchangfu District, Liaocheng City, Shandong Province, cut fresh seasonal fruits into prepackaged ready-to-eat ingredients such as yogurt and canned red beans purchased through formal channels to make fruit fishing take-out, and the result was targeted. After the other party placed the order, it first reported that the fast food restaurant did not have a cold food production license, and then pointed out that the fruit fishing did not meet the food safety standards, and was awarded compensation to 1000 yuan.

Afterwards, the fast food restaurant sued each other and asked the court to decide to return 1000 yuan. Fast food restaurants believe that the other party is not an ordinary consumer, but a professional whistleblower, which is a disguised business behavior of making a purchase for the purpose of claiming compensation, and the 1000 yuan compensation it obtained is unjust enrichment.

On April 28, 2022, the Intermediate People’s Court of Binzhou City, Shandong Province announced the second-instance judgment of the dispute: the People’s Court of Wudi County, Shandong Province ruled that the defendant was unjustly enriched and should return 1000 yuan, a fast food restaurant, and pay interest on the occupation of funds. Binzhou Intermediate People’s Court upheld the original judgment in the second instance.

The fast food restaurant sold fruit fishing and was investigated and compensated 1000 yuan.

According to the court’s judgment, at about 15: 00 on August 11th, 2021, Yumou ordered an energy roll of runaway chicken breast and a fruit fishing with mango bursting beads from Youyou fast food restaurant in Dongchangfu District of Liaocheng City through the "Mei Tuan", with a total payment of 28.6 yuan, and Youyou fast food restaurant delivered it according to the contract. On the same day, Yumou reported that Youyou Fast Food Restaurant sold it "mango fried pearl fruit fishing" through the national 12315 platform, which was suspected of operating cold food beyond the permitted scope. After receiving the report, the market supervision office in front of Dongchangfu District Market Supervision Administration immediately inspected Youyou Fast Food Restaurant, told it not to operate cold food without obtaining the cold food license, and arranged the "Meituan" and "Hungry" platforms to stop the online operation of cold food in the store. At the same time, according to relevant regulations, it was decided to criticize and educate Youyou Fast Food Restaurant for its illegal behavior.

On August 17th, Yumou claimed 1000 yuan from the operator Guo on the grounds that the "mango and pearl-popping fruit fishing" he bought did not meet the food safety standards, and Guo transferred 1000 yuan to Yumou through WeChat.

Subsequently, Youyou fast food restaurant recovered the above money from Yu, but failed. Youyou Fast Food Restaurant brought a lawsuit to Wudi County People’s Court, requesting an order to return Youyou Fast Food Restaurant’s unjust enrichment of 1000 yuan, compensate for its occupation of 1000 yuan’s interest, and compensate for the loss of revenue from normal business projects brought to Youyou Fast Food Restaurant.

The focus of the dispute between the two sides: Is fruit fishing a food that does not meet safety standards?

Whether the fruit fishing involved meets the corresponding national food safety standards and food safety regulations has become the focus of controversy between the original defendant and the defendant.

Yu believes that the fact that Youyou Fast Food Restaurant has not obtained the license for the manufacture and sale of cold food, and the illegal manufacture and sale of food has been verified by Dongchangfu District Market Supervision Administration of Liaocheng City, and it can be confirmed that the food involved in Youyou Fast Food Restaurant’s operation does not meet the national food safety standards of GB14881-2013 and the relevant provisions of the General Rules for the Examination of Food Business License (Trial). At the same time, China’s Food Safety Law stipulates that the state implements a licensing system for food production and operation. Engaged in food production, food sales, catering services, shall obtain a license according to law. In the production of food that does not meet food safety standards, consumers can demand compensation from producers or operators for ten times the price or three times the loss, in addition to compensation for losses. According to the facts ascertained by the relevant administrative departments, Youyou fast food restaurant sells and sells cold food without obtaining the license of "selling and selling cold food", which violates the provisions of the Food Safety Law and causes certain security risks to a certain person. It should pay compensation of ten times the price to a certain person, and the increased compensation amount is calculated as 1,000 yuan if it is less than 1,000 yuan.

Youyou fast food restaurant obviously disagrees with the above opinion. Youyou fast food restaurant said that the fruit fishing produced and sold by the store is only prepackaged and cooked ready-to-eat vegetable ingredients such as big-brand yogurt, canned red beans, and fried eggs, which are cut fresh seasonal fruits and purchased through formal channels, and belong to plant cold food products. According to China’s Food Safety Law, food that does not meet the food safety standards refers to food that is toxic and harmful in essence, does not meet the proper nutritional standards, and may cause any acute, subacute or chronic harm to human health. The fruit fishing produced by Youyou fast food restaurant does not involve toxic and harmful substances, and it has due nutritional requirements and meets food safety standards. In addition, the business format of Youyou Fast Food Restaurant is an online shop, which only provides online catering services, and does not offer in-house meals. Its business premises are in line with the Code of Food Safety Operation for Catering Services. By listing the standards that are not applicable to the business format of online shops, it is inferred that the reason why the fruit fishing produced by Youyou Fast Food Restaurant does not meet the food safety standards cannot be established.

Youyou fast food restaurant also argues that Yu is a professional whistleblower, not an ordinary consumer, and the purchase of goods for the purpose of claiming compensation belongs to a disguised business behavior. Yu seriously violates the principle of good faith in order to achieve the purpose of earning profits by reporting rewards and should be resisted.

Court: No license does not necessarily violate food safety standards, and unjust enrichment should be returned.

The Wudi County People’s Court held in the first instance that based on the evidence submitted by a defendant, it can only prove that Youyou fast food restaurant has an illegal act of operating cold food without permission, but the food manufactured and sold without permission does not necessarily violate the food safety standards, and after a defendant clearly stated in the trial that he did not have diarrhea and other physical discomfort symptoms, so there is insufficient evidence that the food involved in a defense case does not meet the food safety standards, and he should bear the legal consequences of failing to prove it. Therefore, there is no legal basis for a profit, which constitutes unjust enrichment. Therefore, it is decided to return 1000 yuan, a Youyou fast food restaurant, and pay the interest on the funds occupied (based on 1000 yuan, the interest will be calculated at the annual rate of 3.85% from August 17, 2021 to the date of actual payment).

After the judgment of the first instance, Yu appealed.

The second instance of Binzhou Intermediate People’s Court held that the second paragraph of Article 148 of China’s Food Safety Law stipulates that consumers can demand compensation from producers or operators for ten times the price or three times the loss in addition to producing food that does not meet the food safety standards or operating food that they know does not meet the food safety standards; If the amount of additional compensation is less than 1,000 yuan, it will be 1,000 yuan. However, there are defects in the labels and instructions of food that do not affect food safety and will not mislead consumers. Article 150 stipulates that food safety means that food is non-toxic, harmless, meets the nutritional requirements and does not cause any acute, subacute or chronic harm to human health. Accordingly, the food that does not meet the food safety standards referred to in the second paragraph of Article 148 of the Food Safety Law shall refer to the food that is toxic and harmful in essence, does not meet the nutritional standards that should be met, and may cause any acute, subacute or chronic harm to human health.

In this case, Youyou Fast Food Restaurant did not obtain the cold food production license to produce and sell the products involved, but the products involved did not obtain the license to produce and sell did not mean that the products did not meet the food safety standards. The food production license and the food safety standards did not belong to the same category and could not be simply equated. Moreover, it was not proved that the cold food involved was toxic, harmful, did not meet the nutritional requirements, and had any acute, subacute or chronic harm to human health and other problems that affected food safety. Therefore, the basis for a claim for ten times compensation from Youyou fast food restaurant is not sufficient, and the judgment of the court of first instance is not improper.

On April 22, 2022, Binzhou Intermediate People’s Court ruled in the second instance that the appeal was dismissed and the original judgment was upheld.

It was reported that 11 restaurants sold cold dishes and sued State Administration for Market Regulation for rewards, which was rejected by the court.

The Paper inquired about China Judgment Document Network and found that there were more than 200 related judgment documents filed by Yu, many of which sued local market supervision departments for failing to get rewards for reporting.

A second-instance judgment of the Intermediate People’s Court of Dongying City, Shandong Province shows that in May 2020, Yu bought 11 cold dishes, including cold cucumber bean skin, preserved egg with ginger sauce, cold Flammulina velutipes, cold tomatoes, mixed bitter chrysanthemum, green onion mixed with tofu, mixed shredded potatoes, and baked tofu skin, from 11 restaurants through a US group takeaway, and then reported these 11 restaurants to the Dongying Hekou District Market Supervision Bureau. After receiving the report, Hekou Market Supervision Bureau warned the above-mentioned restaurants and ordered them to make corrections, but did not give a reward on the grounds that the report did not meet the reward conditions.

Subsequently, Yu sued the Hekou District Market Supervision Bureau to the court and asked for a reward for reporting. After trial, the court held that in this case, Yu’s above-mentioned behavioral characteristics reflected that his purchase behavior was not for consumption, and he did not submit evidence to prove that the quality of the products he bought damaged his legitimate rights and interests. In the end, it was determined that Yu did not meet the reward conditions in Article 6 of the Measures for Rewarding Reports of Food and Drug Violations, and the judgment rejected Yu’s prosecution.

According to a ruling of Tianjin Xiqing District Court on a lawsuit against Xiqing District Market Supervision Bureau for reporting reward, the court found that Yu had complained and reported 24 cases to Tianjin market supervision system since June 2020, demanding reporting reward. As of July 27, 2020, there were 204 lawsuits filed in a certain place, of which 39 were administrative litigation cases that refused to accept the decisions of market supervision and food and drug supervision. Most of the 165 cases are civil litigation cases in which disputes over sales contracts and online shopping contracts are prosecuted.

Xiqing District Court held that, in this case, the plaintiff filed a large number of complaints or filed lawsuits for rewards for the goods he bought in a short period of time, which obviously did not belong to ordinary consumers who bought goods or services for consumption, and his complaints and reports did not belong to acts implemented to safeguard their legitimate rights and interests. According to the spirit of Article 37 of the Opinions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council on Deepening Reform and Strengthening Food Safety, malicious reporting of illegal profit-making is not a legal act protected by law, and its subject has no legitimate interests protected by law. In the end, the Xiqing District Court rejected Yu’s lawsuit in the first instance.