Is deceiving customers subject to criminal prosecution?
(Baonghean.vn) - My brother was prosecuted for defrauding customers. I would like to ask what is defrauding customers? What are the legal signs of this crime and the punishment? The issue of concern of Mr. Nguyen Hung Long (Quy Hop, Nghe An).
Reply: According to Article 198 of the 2015 Penal Code, the crime of deceiving customers will be prosecuted if it falls into the following cases:
1. Anyone who, in the purchase or sale of goods or provision of services, fraudulently weighs, measures, counts, or calculates goods or services or uses other fraudulent tricks in one of the following cases, shall be subject to a warning, a fine of from VND 10,000,000 to VND 100,000,000 or non-custodial reform for up to 3 years:
a) Having been administratively sanctioned for this act or having been convicted of this crime, not having had the criminal record expunged, and still committing the violation;
b) Illegal profits from VND 5,000,000 to under VND 50,000,000.
2. Committing a crime in one of the following cases shall be subject to a fine of from VND 100,000,000 to VND 500,000,000 or imprisonment from 1 year to 5 years:
a) Organized;
b) Professional in nature;
c) Using cunning tricks;
d) Illegal profits of VND 50,000,000 or more.
3. The offender may also be fined from VND 20,000,000 to VND 100,000,000, and banned from practicing a profession or doing certain jobs from 1 to 5 years.
Customer deception is a fraudulent act of a seller in buying and selling that causes damage to the customer.
The penalty for this crime is divided into two brackets. Depending on the specific case, the offender may also be fined from 20,000,000 VND to 100,000,000 VND, banned from practicing a profession or doing certain jobs from 1 to 5 years.
