Customers will receive ten times the price they paid for audio and video discs if they find their purchase are pirated, according to a new method adopted by the Ministry of Culture to further regulate the market.
Stores will be required to make good the sum of money paid out by the ministry for the illegally-copied discs they have sold, Zhang Xinjian, vice-director of the Ministry's market department said.
Zhang expected that the high compensation will encourage consumers to fight against piracy.
The consumer protection law read that consumers are entitled to compensation double the price of fake and inferior goods they have unknowingly purchased.
However, explained the official, disc buyers did not bother to claim indemnity for the low price, ranging from 10 (1.2 U.S. dollars) to 100 yuan.
The ministry will invite deputies of the National People's Congress and People's Consultative Conference and other consumers to act as watchdogs over the market to further regulate the market.
In response to a request from Vice-Premier Li Langqing last month for the readjustment and regulation of the market, four government organs including public security and industry and commerce joined in a month-long campaign starting in late July to strike pirated software.
Official statistics show that more than 100 department stores selling pirated discs have been closed across the country.
(China Daily 08/06/2001)
