HONG KONG SAR, CHINA Law and Practice Contributed by: Angus Forsyth, Angus Forsyth & Co
7.5 Automatic Renewal/Continuous Service Offers The Consumer Council established under the Con - sumer Council Ordinance carries out surveys and issues announcements on consumer protection but has no statutory force in obliging compliance with its findings. However, the Consumer Council has cir - culated the following: contract terms stipulating that the subscription for services will be automatically renewed on expiry of a commitment period are con - sidered to be unfair if there is no accompanying term requiring the supplier to give a clear and conspicuous written reminder to the consumer at a reasonable time before the contract expires together with notice of any increase in fees or limitation of service. The Industry Code of Practice for Telecommunica - tions Service Contracts requires a contract to specify whether the service will continue to be provided to the customer after the expiry date. If the service is to continue after the expiry of the contract term, the contract must specify the charges as well as whether the provision of the service will have any changes. Unless otherwise agreed by a customer, the contract should not be automatically renewed upon expiry and should provide customers with a right of termination even if the customer has indicated consent for auto - matic contact extension or renewal. However, the Office of the Communications Authority has published an advisory relating to expiry of a con - tract with a fixed term and termination of a telecom - munications service. The Communications Authority has announced that before the expiry of the contract term or switching to another operator, a customer should examine in detail the arrangement under the existing or new contract in relation to the expiry of the fixed term. It is clear that where a customer does not require ser - vice termination upon the expiry of the fixed term, the service will not be terminated automatically but will continue to be provided to the customer on a month- to-month basis with the relevant monthly fee. The advantage of this practice is that the existing tele - communication service will not be terminated abruptly upon expiry of the fixed term, thereby causing incon -
or the chances of the game are not equally favourable to all the players, including among the players, the banker or other person by whom the game is man - aged or against whom the players stake, play or bet. A specific legislated exception to the absolute prohi - bition under the Gambling Ordinance is provided for a “trade promotion competition”, defined to mean a competition or other scheme promoted, conducted or managed for the purpose of promoting a trade or business or the sale of any product. It is further provided by the Gambling Ordinance that “gaming” is lawful if the game is (inter alia) a trade promotion competition, the organisation and conduct of which is authorised by licence issued by a public officer to authorise the organisation and conduct of a trade promotion competition by a person engaged in trade or business. 7.3 Registration and Approval Requirements As stated above, any game of chance is illegal under the Gambling Ordinance with the one exception of the authorisation by a public officer of a trade pro - motion competition whose rules and identity of pro - moter must be lodged with the public officer for prior approval. 7.4 Free and Reduced-Price Offers The Trade Descriptions Ordinance prohibits any free or reduced-price offers which are false. The Broadcast Codes require that visual and verbal presentations of advertisements indicating price, price comparisons or reductions or any pricing ele - ment must be accurate and must not be misleading by undue emphasis or distortion. The Trade Descriptions Ordinance further provides that trade descriptions are specifically prohibited if there are false and misleading representations con - cerning the price of goods or of services. The word “free” has been clearly identified for special atten - tion as a word that should be handled with very great care and it is accordingly reasonably clear that “free” from the consumer viewpoint means absolutely free of charge or cost.
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