Hubei Yasi Supermarket received an admission fee of 410,000 yuan, and the supplier sued for compensation.
"Admission fee" is not a strange word for many suppliers of supermarket chains. What many consumers don’t know is that these "entrance fees" and "rebate fees" have been exposed by CCTV, which is considered to be an important factor to promote high prices.
A supplier in Yichang sued Hubei Yasi Chain Commercial Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Yasi Supermarket) for charging a high "entrance fee". After the second trial, Yichang Intermediate People’s Court recently ruled that Yasi Supermarket should refund the overcharged "rebate fee" of more than 330,000 yuan. Yesterday, according to Yas Supermarket, a complaint was filed with the Provincial High Court.
Sue the supermarket: the supplier asks for a refund
It is Yichang Xinliu Trading Company that has been supplying Yasi Supermarket for more than 3 years.
As a former partner, Xinliu Trading Co., Ltd. has been supplying all kinds of brewed and leisure foods for Yasi Supermarket’s stores in Yichang, Jingmen and Xiangyang since 2009.
Mao Liangyan, the company’s attorney and lawyer of Hubei Puji Law Firm, told the reporter that from 2010 to 2012, the company signed two supply contracts with Yasi Supermarket. As stipulated in the contract, the company supplies goods to Yas Supermarket, and the supermarket can charge basic promotional rebate fees, as well as certain publicity fees, commodity discounts and other fees as appropriate.
"However, in the past few years of cooperation, the fees charged by Yas Supermarket to the supply company have increased year by year, which is too much beyond the scope of the contract agreement. I feel that it is really unsustainable." Mao Liang Yan showed a statistical table to the reporter.
The reporter saw that the statistics of Xinliu Trading Company showed that from January 2011 to March 2012, Yasi Supermarket charged Xinliu Trading Company 10 items including rebate, management fee and exhibition fee, totaling 410,000 yuan.
This 410,000 yuan fee is directly deducted by Yas Supermarket from each supplier’s payment settlement. "These fees are actually commonly known as entrance fees." Xinliu Trading Company said that if the contract is strictly fulfilled, Yasi Supermarket should only charge a rebate fee of more than 70,000 yuan.
After the second trial: the supermarket should refund 330,000 yuan
In April last year, Xinliu Trading Company sued Yasi Supermarket in Xiling District Court.
After receiving the lawsuit, the head of the legal department of Yas Supermarket appeared in court. According to Yas Supermarket’s explanation to the court, Yas Supermarket and the supplier have no formal written contract, and the deduction is a rebate fee charged according to the "trading habits" of both parties.
After investigation by the court, it was found that there was a clause on "basic promotion rebate" in the agreement signed by both parties. According to different sales outlets inside and outside Yichang area, Xinliu Trading Company agreed to give Yasi Supermarket a rebate of 2.5% to 3% of the total payment.
During the cooperation between the two parties, the total sales of Xinliu Trading Company in Yas Supermarket was 2.51 million yuan, and Yas Supermarket should charge more than 70,000 yuan for the "rebate fee", but actually charged more than 410,000 yuan.
In July last year, the Xiling District Court made a first-instance judgment that Yasi Supermarket should refund the overcharged fee of more than 330,000 yuan.
In this regard, Yasi Supermarket refused to accept the judgment and appealed to Yichang Intermediate People’s Court. The supermarket believes that "the expenses agreed in the contract should also include other expenses such as promotion activities and management fees for promoters."
On December 6, last year, Yichang Intermediate People’s Court, after retrial investigation, thought that Yas’s appeal reason lacked evidence support and rejected its appeal.
It is understood that Xinliu Trading Company is still applying for judgment execution. On the afternoon of March 17th, the reporter learned from Hubei Yasi Commercial Chain Company that the company had filed a complaint with Hubei Provincial High Court.
Suffering from criticism: "entrance fee" drives up retail price
Why is the price difference of the same bag of potato chips near 1 yuan in different supermarkets? In an online survey on supermarket satisfaction conducted by the Three Gorges News Network, the option of "the same commodity, the price is much higher than other supermarkets" has become one of the most dissatisfied options for consumers.
According to industry insiders, this is related to the "entry fee" between suppliers and supermarkets.
The reporter interviewed a number of chain supermarkets in the city randomly. In front of the food counter of a supermarket, the salesperson explained that the prices of the goods were all priced by the supermarket and the supplier and released to the sales store in a unified way.
But in fact, some suppliers admitted to reporters that "part of the price of goods includes supermarket entrance fees. If we only sell them at the actual price of goods, we will have lost money."
It has become an unspoken rule in the industry that supermarkets charge "entrance fees", which not only includes supermarket rebates, but also many inexplicable "publicity fees" and "discount points". Business people believe that "wool is on sheep, and suppliers can’t sell it at a loss, so they can only find a way from the price of goods."
But despite this, it is rare for suppliers to sue supermarket chains. "We have not heard of the second case in Yichang so far." A lawyer who has been engaged in commercial litigation cases for more than ten years in Hubei Province told reporters that this is mainly because many suppliers are in a weak position compared with supermarkets. "I would rather pay more money or increase the cost of goods than offend cooperative supermarkets."
(Three Gorges Evening News He Fan)