The much-watched case of "a peasant woman who sold 150 tamales and was sentenced to pay 50,000 yuan" has made progress. On January 11, 2024, The Paper learned from the ** person of Wang Yaqiong, the head of the Mao Mama Native Products Business Department in Zhong County, that the Chongqing High Court has recently made a civil ruling allowing Shao Baichun to withdraw the lawsuit; The original first-instance and second-instance judgments were revoked.
The Paper previously reported that in July 2021, Shao Baichun, a man from Heilongjiang, bought 150 servings of cooked food in Mao's mother's business department. After receiving the goods, Shao Baichun found that there was no information such as product name, production date and shelf life on the packaging of this batch of cooked food, so he sued the "Mao Mama Business Department" to the court, requesting "one refund and ten compensations". After trial by the Chongqing Hechuan District People's Court and the Chongqing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court, both courts supported Shao Baichun's claim. This incident has sparked a huge controversy on the Internet, with both netizens supporting Shao Baichun's approach, and netizens sympathizing with the producers and operators, believing that this is a fight against counterfeiting for profit.
On April 22, 2022, the Chongqing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court notified that it had explained the procedural rights enjoyed by the parties, informing them that if they were not satisfied with the second-instance judgment, they could file an application for retrial within 6 months from the effective date of the second-instance judgment in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Procedural Law.
On April 29 of the same year, Wang Yaqiong entrusted a lawyer to apply to the Chongqing Municipal High Court for a retrial. On August 4 of the same year, the Chongqing Municipal High Court issued a civil ruling and brought the case to trial. During the trial by the Chongqing Municipal High Court, Shao Baichun applied to withdraw the first-instance lawsuit on the grounds that the parties had reached a settlement agreement on their own.
The Chongqing Municipal High People's Court held that Shao Baichun's request to withdraw the first-instance prosecution had been agreed to by the other parties and did not harm the national interest, the public interest, or the lawful rights and interests of others, and was granted in accordance with law. It was then ruled that Shao Baichun should be allowed to withdraw the lawsuit; The civil judgments of the Chongqing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court and the Hechuan District Court were revoked.
However, Wang Yaqiong's ** person did not disclose the content of the aforementioned settlement agreement.
The Paper once went to Zhongxian County to visit the "Mao Mama Business Department". "Mao Mama Business Department" is a small family-style food production and processing workshop, and has obtained the "Food Business License" and the "Chongqing Food Production and Processing Small Workshop Registration Certificate". Wang Yaqiong once said that the business department was gradually developed by her mother-in-law Mao Lanying pickled a jar of pickles.
Zhao Hong, a professor at China University of Political Science and Law, once pointed out that the reason why the law lowers the requirements for food safety standards for these small workshops is, on the one hand, to be tolerant of those small workshops that run small businesses and often rely on word of mouth for sales, and on the other hand, to achieve a diversified and rich market ecology and provide consumers with more choices. In practice, it is not realistic or in line with the characteristics of low cost, small scale and low income of such producers that all small food processing workshops and food vendors are required to meet the requirements of eight food safety standards in Article 26 in their food production and business activities.
*: The Paper.