Posting a picture of a cake with maggots on Facebook can result in a 12 million VND compensation fine.
Instead of reporting the discovery of maggots in the mooncakes to the authorities, a person was ordered by the court to pay 12 million VND in compensation.
On the afternoon of February 6th, the Quang Nam Provincial People's Court held an appeal hearing in the case of "Claim for compensation for damages outside of contract" between the plaintiff, Ms. Ngo Thi Bich Thuan, owner of Hoa Sen Bakery (Ha Lam town, Thang Binh district, Quang Nam province), and the defendant, Ms. Nguyen Thi Xuan Dao (born in 1975, residing in Ha Lam town).
According to the records, on September 15, 2016 (August 15th in the lunar calendar), Ms. Dao's daughter, Nguyen Thi Mai Ph. (born in 2006), received a mooncake from her teacher, labeled "Hoa Sen" (Lotus Flower). On the morning of September 16, 2016, after hearing some classmates say there were maggots in the mooncake, Ph. and her friends reported it to their homeroom teacher.
The court ordered the Facebook account owner to apologize and pay 12 million VND in compensation.
That afternoon, after returning from school, Ph. cut open the mooncake and found several creatures inside. She then filmed and photographed the scene with her phone and posted a video and seven photos of the mooncake and a creature crawling on it to Nguyen Xuan Dao's Facebook account (Ms. Dao's account), along with the caption: "Hoa Sen mooncakes have maggots crawling all over them, please be careful!"
Claiming that the information about Hoa Sen mooncakes containing maggots was untrue and caused damage to the reputation and revenue of Hoa Sen bakery, on October 4, 2016, Ms. Thuan filed a complaint with the Thang Binh District Police.
On October 6, 2016, the Thang Binh District Police concluded that Ph. had committed the act of "Transmitting and exchanging digital information to insult the honor and reputation of an organization," violating point g, clause 3, Article 66 of Decree 174/2013/ND-CP (regulating administrative penalties in the fields of postal services, telecommunications, information technology, and radio frequencies). However, because Ph. was underage, she was not subject to administrative penalties.
Images of mooncakes containing maggots were posted on Facebook. Photo: HT
On October 12, 2016, Ms. Thuan filed a lawsuit against Ms. Dao at the Thang Binh District People's Court for using her personal Facebook account to "transmit and exchange digital information aimed at insulting the honor and reputation" of Hoa Sen Bakery.
At the first-instance trial on September 8, 2017, the Thang Binh District People's Court ruled that the defendant, Ms. Dao, must publicly apologize and correct the information on her personal Facebook page (Nguyen Xuan Dao) and in the press for affecting the reputation and business of Hoa Sen Bakery. Ms. Dao and her husband were also ordered to compensate for economic and emotional damages totaling over 12 million VND.
Dissatisfied with the verdict, Ms. Dao filed an appeal against the entire judgment, while Ms. Thuan appealed, requesting an increase in the compensation amount.
At the court hearing on the afternoon of February 6th, the panel of judges affirmed that there was no basis to determine whether the mooncakes that Ms. Dao's daughter posted on Nguyen Xuan Dao's Facebook page were actually produced by Hoa Sen Bakery. The testimony of Ms. Dao, Ms. Dao, and the witnesses were insufficient to confirm that Hoa Sen mooncakes contained maggots. Posting the information about "Hoa Sen mooncakes containing maggots" on Nguyen Xuan Dao's Facebook page negatively impacted Hoa Sen Bakery, causing economic and emotional damage to the establishment.
Therefore, the Quang Nam Provincial People's Court rejected the appeals of both the plaintiff and the defendant, upholding the first-instance judgment.
