Surge In Wedding-related Complaints Amid Pandemic

The city's consumer rights' watchdog has seen a spike in complaints about wedding services last year when many couples had to postpone or cancel their bookings due to the pandemic.

More than 230 complaints were recorded by the Consumer Council in 2020, the highest in three years.

The council's chief executive, Gilly Wong, said on Monday that more than half of those complaints were related to banquets or catering services.

In one case, after a couple had paid a HK$72,000 deposit for a banquet worth over HK$210,000, they were asked to pay the remaining sum to a Chinese restaurant group just to cancel their booking.

The restaurant had reportedly said the outstanding amount of about HK$140,000 was for compensation.

After the council's intervention, the complainant didn't pay anything extra other than the forfeited deposit.

The watchdog told people getting married to be careful with what they sign up for.

"Don't trust verbal contract... Just in case you need to postpone or defer or make any changes to the contract which is major, we would suggest you to sign a new contract instead of amending the existing contract," Wong said.

"Because based on our findings, it's quite obvious the standard template that the restaurants or venues that they're using may not be well-drafted to cover the situation we are facing."

In a separate study, the council detected problems with some hair dye products it tested. They were listed as natural but were found to contain allergens or heavy metals.

It tested 26 hair dyes and organic hennas available on the market, and found 16 had substances that could trigger allergies.

All six henna products it tested contained lead, and one contained mercury, but they are all within the allowed levels under the standards in mainland China.

Some hair dyes failed to say they contained ammonia and allergens, and the council said it's passed the relevant cases to local authorities.

In response, the Customs and Excise Department said it has seized two products found to have exceeded the bacterial counts allowed under Hong Kong laws.