A court has fined two drug stores that breached Hong Kong shopping bag laws.
The drug stores that provided plastic shopping bags without charging the customers have been fined HK$6000 (US$770) and HK$10,000 respectively by Kwun Tong Magistrates’ Courts for contravening the Product Eco-responsibility Ordinance (PERO).
An Environmental Protection Department (EPD) spokesman says the first case involved a shop in Lok Shan Road, To Kwa Wan. During an inspection, EPD staff found some bags hanging on a lamp post outside the store, with customers being asked to take the bags themselves without any charge. As it was a planned action to evade charging customers for plastic bags as required by the law, the EPD prosecuted the drug store.
In the other case, the EPD issued a fixed-penalty notice to the owner of a drug store in the Kwai Hing Estate Arcade for providing free plastic bags to customers. In a follow-up surprise check by EPD staff, the store was again found to be illegally providing free bags to customers.
Retailers must charge customers not less than 50 cents for each bag directly or indirectly provided for goods they have bought. The retailer can keep the fees.
The spokesman says it is an offence if a retailer intentionally uses various means to provide customers with free bags.
The EPD issues fixed-penalty notices of $2000 to retailers found to have contravened the requirements. Prosecution is initiated for repeat or serious contraventions, with first-time offenders liable to a maximum fine of $100,000.
Since PSB charging was fully implemented on April 1, 2015, the EPD has held more than 79,000 retail-outlet inspections, with 358 fixed-penalty notices issued and 10 prosecution cases initiated.
