Businesses need not wait for legislation to be passed to offer voluntary cooling-off terms on prepaid services that will improve consumers’ confidence, the head of Hong Kong’s consumer watchdog has said as complaints continued to mount in the wake of Physical gym chain scandal.
Her proposal on Monday followed a remark on Saturday by the city’s Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu that the government would reconsider introducing a cooling-off period for prepaid contracts – a suggestion first floated in 2019 but later put on hold due to the struggling economy.
Gilly Wong Fung-han, chief executive of the Consumer Council, said the watchdog had received 4,191 complaints related to the closure of the fitness chain as of Monday 6pm, with the claims snowballing to HK$141 million (US$18.1 million). 212 of complainants were aged 65 years old or older.
Earlier in the day, the watchdog said about 80 per cent of the complaints involved fitness services, while the rest were related to beauty services.
Physical Health Centre announced its abrupt closure on September 6, and two directors were subsequently arrested after several former employees accused the company of using fraudulent hard-sell methods just before its shutdown.