Chapter 548: Litigation Fees Are Not Cheap!

January 30th, for Zhou Yi, today is neither good nor bad.

There is nothing sensitive on Fang Dazhuang's legal calendar, though there is one point: today is actually auspicious for investigations.

Could it be that today is the day for the Market Supervision Department to conduct investigations?

Forget it, never mind that; after filing a report, all one can do is wait, wait for them to provide a result, whether price fraud exists, and what the subsequent administrative penalty will be.

As for today, for Gao Yuxia and even the executives of A-Fu Company, it is a very ordinary day: going to work, holding meetings, and arranging tasks.

The General Manager of A-Fu Company, Tang Pengcheng, is currently arranging work at a meeting; they are also planning to hold an annual gala, as the company's performance this year has been good.

"The last event we held was excellent, and I hope that next we should..."

However, before Tang Pengcheng could finish his sentence, the Secretary walked over with an anxious look and whispered something in his ear; in an instant, Tang's expression changed.

"Really? Where is the person?"

"They have already entered our company, saying they want to meet, and the investigation is about to start immediately!"

Tang Pengcheng could no longer care about the meeting or arrangements, and hurriedly said: "The Market Supervision people have come to investigate, what is going on? They are already at the company now, why didn't we have any news about this?"

For normal disputes, it is absolutely impossible for the Market Supervision Department to conduct an investigation with such a massive show of force.

And likewise, when relevant departments come to your door to conduct such an investigation, it means your matter is quite serious...

The group of executives sitting in the office looked at each other in dismay. Gao Yuxia hesitated for a moment and said: "Manager Tang, why don't we ask first to see if we are the only ones being investigated."

Upon hearing this, Tang Pengcheng nodded immediately. He had been a bit anxious because of the news just now; as long as they were not the only ones being investigated, then it was actually still okay.

If everyone is investigated together, it is equivalent to no one being investigated.

Soon, Tang Pengcheng took several executives, including Gao Yuxia, downstairs and met the investigators from the Market Supervision Department; there were quite a few of them.

"Hello, you are Manager Tang Pengcheng, right? Yes, I am a staff member from the Market Supervision Department here in Shenzhen. Your previous promotional activities are suspected of price fraud, so we need to investigate."

Price fraud?

Tang Pengcheng wore a smile and said enthusiastically: "No problem, no problem, our company will fully cooperate. By the way, I would like to ask, is this a general investigation or..."

The staff member did not respond and, along with the others, quickly began their work; what they needed to do was to directly retrieve price data from the A-Fu Company backend.

Since the other party did not say, Tang Pengcheng began making phone calls, and through his connections, he quickly had an answer.

"So Lao Liu, more than ten companies are being investigated today, right? Oh, all kinds of industries? Okay, I see. I was also caught by a surprise attack; we'll stay in touch if anything comes up later."

After hanging up the phone, Tang Pengcheng looked at the several executives: "It's confirmed, it's not targeted at us. There are more than ten companies being investigated in this sudden sweep, and they are from all kinds of industries."

"So there shouldn't be any big problems. Everyone go back to work. Yuxia, you stay here and watch, and while you're at it, see if you can find out anything."

Gao Yuxia nodded. She didn't overthink it; since it wasn't targeted at just their company, there wouldn't be any problems for the time being.

That is how Fang Dazhuang always does things; filing a lawsuit is a lesson, and filing a complaint or report is also a lesson.

If it were just a complaint against A-Fu alone, the Market Supervision Department would certainly investigate and handle it, but it wouldn't be like this.

An investigation like this means that the relevant departments are preparing to crack down on a certain phenomenon!

Setting the tone is a very important matter. The Case Analysis and guiding cases released by the Supreme People's Court every year are all about setting the tone.

Sometimes you can't determine anything just by looking at the legal articles, and furthermore, the Judicial Interpretation isn't necessarily clear either.

For the same matter, one could apply this article or that article; what to do? At this time, it requires the Supreme People's Court to set the tone.

And in this matter, when this kind of widespread, temporarily existing, falsely high strikethrough price and high-discount behavior is identified as price fraud, then when the lawsuit reaches the Court, the Court will not easily change the verdict. Those who know, know.

This is something that won't be written in the legal articles.

Tang Pengcheng could roughly guess that this time it might be because the 40% off promotional activity they launched last time was too aggressive, so it caught someone's eye.

But those other companies that were inexplicably investigated were also dumbfounded.

For example, another peer in the gold industry, Asheng Company; when the Market Supervision personnel arrived at their door, the people in the company were stunned.

The last time they held an event was during Double Twelve and Double Eleven, and even the Double Twelve event wasn't very aggressive; they were originally planning to hold one before the New Year.

As a result, before they could even hold the event, the Market Supervision people showed up at their door.

Not to mention the other companies; the ones Fang Dazhuang deals with are basically all large companies, as he is too lazy to collect evidence for small ones.

Everything has already been arranged; as soon as the Market Supervision investigation yields a result, Zhou Yi will go directly to file a lawsuit. This is a logical progression.

While Shenzhen is in the midst of a tight investigation, previously, the Lincheng Court had already accepted the lawsuit filed by Zhou Xinran.

Over the past two days, they have already begun the service of process separately.

Consequently, in a very short time, some Netizens who had previously spewed filth online suddenly discovered that they had become a Defendant!

In Modu, in a residential building, Ren Qijun was listlessly scrolling through news online; he is that "Typhoon is very strong last night" from the internet.

Recently, it just so happened to be the World Cup period, and he was also joining in the fun to play a little.

As a result, no matter what he did, he lost; it was as if he were a beacon of bad luck. If he bet on the favorite, there would be an upset; if he bet against it, the result would be normal.

By now, he could only rely on silly internet news to console himself.

Just at this moment, the "Typhoon" brother scrolled past a somewhat familiar name.

"Midnight Sleepless? Isn't this the person who had an argument with me before?"

There's no help for it; for strangers we've only dealt with once or twice, we generally don't remember them, but for those we've argued with, damn it, even when lying on our deathbeds, we remember them clearly.

The "Typhoon" brother was the same; he remembered clearly that this guy was berating an elderly woman who was trying to take advantage of a situation. He had said at the time that the situation wasn't clear, to let the bullets fly for a while, that one shouldn't blindly believe what these people on the internet say, and that there must be evidence.

As a result, the other party actually retorted, asking him if he also liked to take advantage of people in his daily life...

You tell me, who could stand such words? The two of them had a huge argument at the time, but unfortunately, on the internet, you can't do anything even if you're angry to death.

The reason he was surprised now was that the "Typhoon" brother discovered that this guy had posted an apology video—the kind of video where one holds a handwritten apology letter!

And it was issued to a Ms. Wu, saying he shouldn't have engaged in public insults online and begging for her forgiveness.

So, that Ms. Wu actually took it seriously?

The "Typhoon" brother suddenly became interested. Although A Yi's constant insistence on taking things seriously had made the online environment a bit fresher, there were still people who couldn't control their own foul mouths.

The way they curse at people is just infuriating.

Never expected that such an elderly woman would actually take it seriously!

This civil lawsuit has been filed, but what about the criminal one?

No, I have to forward this quickly. I just didn't expect that the guy who was acting so high and mighty while arguing with me online would be so young, looking just like a student...

Do students these days really curse at people online like this?

The speed of a Criminal Case is actually even faster than a civil one. Right now, in a city in Hanbei Province very close to Jingzhou, Xiang Weilin, who was working at his Company, stared at the Silver Bracelets on his wrists, still unable to process what had happened.

Other colleagues were there speaking up for him, asking the police why they were making an arrest.

There was no need for confidentiality in this kind of case, so the police who came to make the arrest spoke up directly.

"Online insult? But, but Officer, Little Xiang has always been very good; he works hard, his personality is also very good, and he often helps others. This... how could he break the law?"

Xiang Weilin's supervisor said there: "If it's just saying a few things online, there's no need to arrest someone, right?"

The police said directly: "He didn't just say a few things. He took the lead in Internet Violence against the Plaintiff online, carrying out extremely malicious insults, so the other party filed a Criminal Private Prosecution, and the case has already been accepted for Case Filing..."

Xiang Weilin remained dazed. He really did curse online because he personally truly hated those kinds of middle-aged women who take advantage of others.

Because he had seen that kind of woman in real life, when he saw one online, he couldn't help but start cursing. He just didn't expect his insults to be so harsh, receiving all kinds of likes, comments, and shares from many people.

He just didn't expect that such a middle-aged woman would actually file a Criminal Private Prosecution?

The Company's leadership dared not speak anymore. If they might not have known about Criminal Private Prosecution before, A Yi had been stirring up trouble online for so long that even if people hadn't eaten pork, they had seen pigs run.

The main thing was that truly no one expected that middle-aged woman would actually be so serious about it!

Everyone accepted that A Yi would be serious, but then a middle-aged woman popped up, and she was being serious there too!

After his daze ended, seeing that he was about to be taken away, Xiang Weilin's tears fell instantly. Just as his colleague said, as someone with a very good personality in real life, he really thought he would never have any involvement with the Criminal Law.

With this thought in mind, his emotions collapsed instantly.

"Why? There are so many people cursing online, why did it have to be me!"

The Public Security Bureau and Court in Lincheng were already operating at full capacity. At this moment, they understood the feelings of their counterparts in Jingzhou and Luzhou back then.

Some judges' hair began to fall out rapidly, and everyone went out with dark circles under their eyes.

Lin Liqing sat in the law firm, her complexion very poor.

Many letters of apology had appeared online, and they were all in video format, making Lin Liqing suddenly feel that a storm was about to arrive.

But, it was just that kind of middle-aged woman. She had even specifically asked Xiao Zhenliang to clarify, and a regular middle-aged woman in a relatively remote and poor city like Lincheng in Handong definitely couldn't be serious.

They probably didn't even know what a Criminal Private Prosecution was.

This was also the reason why they had been so fearless before!

A Yi was very tough when he was serious, constantly launching large-scale Litigation, but A Yi was only one person after all. There were too few people who could do things like him; one could say there were almost none.

It was just unexpected that the middle-aged woman they originally thought was a quail had suddenly turned into a lion...

A colleague nearby came over and even laughed: "Liqing, you are an internet celebrity Lawyer now. Remember to take care of us if anything comes up in the future."

"Exactly, once you're famous, you don't have to worry about cases. Look at us, worrying about case sources day after day."

Just as they were chatting, the glass door of the law firm was pushed open, and looking closely, they discovered it was several police officers.

"Who is Lin Liqing? Oh, it's you. Lin Liqing, you are suspected of Defamation and Insult. Come with us now."

Lin Liqing wanted to say something, but tears streamed down. She had been so arrogant before, and now she was just as regretful. If she could do it again, she would absolutely not post that video...

Watching Lin Liqing being taken away, several colleagues looked at each other and quickly shut their mouths.

Being famous isn't necessarily a good thing. They say several internet celebrity Lawyers have already been arrested this year...

More and more people were apologizing online, and quite a few people were revealing that others had already been arrested, which made many Netizens interested. Who exactly was that middle-aged woman surnamed Wu?

It was just a pity that no one dared to look for the other party's personal information. Are you kidding? At a time like this, you come to do human-flesh searching; do you think our police officers have poor eyesight?

The incident once again sparked discussion online. Many people began to think about how high the cost of such large-scale Legal Aid was, and how much profit such Legal Aid would bring.

As the saying goes, no one gets up early without profit; basically, no one does things without benefits.

But if a matter has benefits, then there is no need for the state to encourage it; people will do it spontaneously, and they will be very proactive, with plenty of motivation...

However, these discussions did not last for many days and were soon covered up by another matter.

On February 3rd, a piece of bombshell news suddenly caused the internet to explode!

"The Shenzhen Market Supervision Bureau, after investigation, has found that many companies engaged in Price Fraud during Double Eleven, Double Twelve, and subsequent marketing activities. The following is the list..."

Fang Dazhuang had reported more than ten companies, but when the matter was reported to the municipal bureau, the situation became different.

Shenzhen is not an ordinary city. Since they are going to investigate, it must be fair, right? You can't say that since everyone is doing it this way, I will only investigate these few because they were reported.

And those others aren't investigated because no one reported them; there is no such logic. Since the municipal bureau is investigating, it must treat everyone equally.

Consequently, a bunch of companies were caught, and at the very front was A-Fu Company.

In this announcement, the Market Supervision Bureau provided a detailed explanation of these companies' behavior of Fictitious Original Price and educated the public: without special explanation, a Strikethrough Price represents the original price!

Because its first impression on people is that it is the original price; otherwise, why would you write such a price and strike it through?

This is another public characterization since the punishment for Fictitious Original Price behavior two years ago!

A few years ago, these online companies were even bolder; they directly labeled it as the original price, but later they were reported by some fake-busters and ordinary consumers, and they were fined quite a bit.

That year, the Fictitious Original Price case was one of the top ten consumer rights protection cases of that year.

Then, slowly groping along, it became what it is now: a Strikethrough Price, and I won't say this is the original price.

It is just a pity that the clever trick didn't succeed; it was characterized as the original price.

As for how to punish, it wasn't stated, but it can be confirmed that Price Fraud behavior exists in the current situation.

Inside A-Fu Company, the complexions of the executives were not good.

With such a matter happening at the end of the year, Tang Pengcheng was severely criticized by the headquarters, but there was no way around it; the matter had already been announced, and it couldn't be changed.

The current situation is equivalent to the stick of the Market Supervision Bureau, the "godfather," having already been raised. As for how much force will be used, it depends on the situation.

"Send out a notice, have all Strikethrough Prices explained for me. Yes, contact the platform and specifically explain that the Strikethrough Price is not the original price; it must be stated clearly."

Rectification is mandatory, but how to rectify still needs to be considered.

If we strictly follow the legal regulations, the discount intensity when holding activities will feel not as great as others.

"Morning three, evening four" is no empty saying; many people fall for this "discount intensity." Even though their 60% off price is higher than someone else's 80% off price, they subconsciously still choose the 60% off...

As for taking risks, once you truly understand what these people in online marketing have done, you will discover that their guts are much bigger than ordinary people imagine.

And many Netizens finally learned today that it turns out there are so many meanings to this Strikethrough Price!

Under such circumstances, the previous matter between A-Fu Company and Zhou Yi's mother was dug up again.

Someone asked directly: "You keep saying that your discount intensity couldn't possibly be this high, but yet, you use such methods to run promotions, so how are we supposed to judge whether you actually marked it wrong or were running a promotion?"

The previous A-Fu Lawsuit still left many people dissatisfied, but because of the narrative Lin Liqing was pushing, what they said had no traction.

Now these words are being taken seriously.

Contract Major Misunderstanding is indeed one of the conditions for cancellation, but the status of merchants and consumers is inherently different; merchants can produce a pile of evidence at any time and place, while in many cases, consumers fall into a situation of being unable to provide proof.

So everyone really wants to know, if one day your A-Fu Company sells something at a ridiculously expensive price, will you sue saying this is also a Major Misunderstanding that needs to be cancelled?

Such comments were naturally seen by A-Fu Company, and Gao Yuxia's instruction was to call some Internet Water Army to let them disrupt these narratives.

Gao Yuxia has a splitting headache now; the New Year was supposed to be approaching peacefully, who could have imagined such a thing would happen.

Various discussions began online because of this matter, and amidst such chaos, Zhou Yi, Fang Dazhuang, and Zhou Xinran stood at the entrance of the District Court.

Although a compensation of over ten million looks like a lot, in Shenzhen, this amount of money has not yet reached the level for the Intermediate Court to handle in the First Instance.

As for exactly how much money requires the Intermediate Court to handle the First Instance, it depends on the local economic development level, just like theft and intentional injury; every place has its own regulations.

At such a time, the three of them wouldn't say much, and just like that, led by Fang Dazhuang, they walked all the way into the Case Filing Hall.

They queued up, and before long, they reached the Case Filing window, where Fang Dazhuang submitted the materials.

The staff member took the materials and began to flip through them carefully, but ended up stunned while reading.

"This is Lawyer Fang, right? Are you sure this number is correct?"

As for cases with large Litigation Fee amounts, the staff member had seen quite a few.

But, to be honest, he had never seen such a large amount for a Return One Compensate Three case!

He had heard of some large amounts, but they were mostly concentrated in the luxury car sector.

Yes, that's right; in our country, Return One Compensate Three cases that are prone to large compensation amounts are generally those involving luxury cars.

And under normal circumstances, we say that Return One Compensate Three for fraudulent behavior does not include commercial housing; everyone understands this matter, so there is no need to explain.

And now, the subject matter on this Indictment is gold jewelry!

Fang Dazhuang laughed and said: "That's right, it is exactly this number."

He had made up his mind this time to make this a sensational case nationwide; even if this case takes a long time and is troublesome, he must fight it to the end!

He believes that after this case, if A-Fu wants to pull any more "marked the wrong price" stunts, they will think about it carefully...

The staff member opposite hesitated and asked again: "Bought over four million worth of gold products?"

Zhou Yi, standing to the side, smiled and said: "Yes, comrade. I bought them as annual meeting gifts for the Company's Employees. My company does this every year, and I pay for it out of my own pocket."

"You can see the evidence inside."

The staff member flipped to the evidence and immediately stopped talking; he instantly realized who the person in front of him was!

A Yi, because it was exposed online a while ago that the annual meeting prizes for the Tenda Company were all paid for by the boss; he didn't expect to run into him here!

After reading all the evidence, the staff member felt very conflicted.

This case is not complicated; it is a very ordinary civil dispute case.

It is just that when this very ordinary case involves a figure of over ten million, it becomes extraordinary.

Although he felt that this Lawyer Fang's evidence was impeccable, the staff member still called over the director; he needed to clarify things.

The director had the same reaction when he arrived: the case is simple, but the amount is too large!

So large that it even makes one suspect the other party is knowingly buying fakes!

However, according to this evidence, the person is just engaging in normal consumer behavior.

"Director, are we filing the case or not?" the staff member asked, swallowing his saliva.

"File it! Why wouldn't we file it? Other places have already given First Instance judgments; as long as the evidence is sufficient, why not file? File it!"

The staff member nodded, then looked at Fang Dazhuang outside and said: "Alright, our Court has decided to file the case. You three wait a moment; we will give you the Case Filing Notice in a while."

"But are you sure you want to sue? With such a subject matter amount, the Litigation Fee will not be cheap!"

"No problem, we will pay whatever it costs!" Fang Dazhuang said, then stood up, took Zhou Yi and Zhou Xinran to the side, and a smile appeared on his face: "See, I told you this matter is very simple."

"It's just that, sometimes the law is not entirely the law; we must be prepared for a protracted war!"

First update, six thousand words! Thanks to Feimaowuyu, Wenchidage, and another newcomer brother, Yiyuqingshan, Mengxinzai, Bian'anhua, and Shengxian; thanks to the brothers for the rewards, thank you. If nothing goes wrong, there will be another chapter of six thousand words, exactly twelve thousand, which is the third update.

(End of chapter)