What is coffee made out of, and what does customer data protection require?

Heytea dismissed a worker at its Chang'an Wanda Plaza store in Shijiazhuang after the employee searched a customer's phone number, sent a WeChat friend request, and harassed her. The customer had ordered through the Heytea mini-program. The store said the employee acted off duty and that only the store phone could access customer numbers from order records, and it has not explained how the number was obtained.

The manager said the worker had been at the store about half a year and that no similar case had occurred before. Heytea has privacy rules but had not run dedicated training on them at that location. The incident drew attention just as China's Regulation on the Implementation of the Law on the Protection of Consumer Rights and Interests took effect in July 2024, which sets clearer limits on collecting and using personal information. For anyone wondering what is coffee made out of, the same question of how ingredients and data are handled applies to both.

Recently, an incident at a HEYTEA store in Shijiazhuang, where an employee searched for a customer's phone number and added her on WeChat to harass her, has sparked widespread attention. After the incident came to light, HEYTEA quickly dismissed the employee and apologized and compensated the affected customer. This individual case not only exposes tea beverage brands' lack of training on customer privacy protection but also once again pushes the topic of consumer personal information security into the spotlight. With the Regulation on the Implementation of the Law on the Protection of Consumer Rights and Interests officially taking effect in July 2024, the boundaries for business operators collecting and using personal information have become clearer, and the cost of violations has risen significantly. This article will review the course of the incident, the brand's response, and the relevant legal provisions.

According to Zhengsai News, a female internet user recently posted on social media, alleging that a staff member at the HEYTEA Chang'an Wanda Plaza store in Shijiazhuang searched for her via her phone number, sent her a friend request, and harassed her on WeChat.

From the chat records the woman made public, the employee involved explained that he was just joking around with other colleagues at the store at the time: "He picked up his phone, randomly found a phone number, and added it."

The woman mentioned in the post that she had previously placed an order at that store through the HEYTEA mini-program, and after the incident she had complained to HEYTEA's official customer service.

On October 15, a Zhengsai News reporter contacted the HEYTEA Chang'an Wanda Plaza store by phone. The store manager responded that the matter occurred on the evening of the 14th, when the employee was already off duty, and that it was personal behavior.

The manager also pointed out that only the store's mobile phone could access customers' phone numbers through order information. As for how the employee involved obtained the female customer's number, the store currently has no idea.

The manager also revealed that the employee involved had worked at the store for about half a year and that no similar situation had ever occurred before. Although HEYTEA has regulations on protecting customer privacy information, the store had not conducted specialized training on this.

"Because normally no one would do such a thing, so we didn't specifically train for it. We didn't expect someone to actually do this, and we were also very shocked."

That same afternoon, the woman told the reporter that the matter had been resolved. HEYTEA had dismissed the employee involved, apologized to her, and provided corresponding compensation.

Regarding the protection of consumer personal information, the Regulation of the People's Republic of China on the Implementation of the Law on the Protection of Consumer Rights and Interests (hereinafter referred to as the Regulation), which took effect on July 1, 2024, already has clear provisions.

The Regulation requires that business operators shall protect consumers' personal information in accordance with the law. When providing goods or services, they must not excessively collect consumers' personal information, nor force or covertly force consumers to consent to the collection and use of personal information not directly related to business activities through means such as one-time blanket authorization or default authorization.

In addition, Article 20 of the Regulation specifically emphasizes consumers' right to tranquility: without consumers' consent, business operators must not send commercial information or make commercial calls to consumers, and must provide consumers with a convenient way to opt out.

If a business operator violates Article 24 of the Regulation, the administrative department shall, in accordance with Article 56 of the Law on the Protection of Consumer Rights and Interests, impose penalties depending on the circumstances, including warnings, confiscation of illegal gains, and fines of not less than one time but not more than ten times the illegal gains; if there are no illegal gains, a fine of not more than 500,000 yuan shall be imposed; if the circumstances are serious, the business shall be ordered to suspend operations for rectification or even have its business license revoked.

As a leading brand in the new tea beverage sector, HEYTEA should immediately urge its employees to abide by laws and regulations, effectively safeguard consumer rights, comprehensively improve service standards, and create a safe and reassuring consumption environment for consumers.

Public information shows that HEYTEA was founded in Jiangmen, Guangdong, in 2012. According to Frost & Sullivan data, calculated by retail sales, HEYTEA's retail sales reached 9 billion yuan in 2023, ranking fifth among new tea beverage brands.

HEYTEA opened franchising in November 2022. According to its "2023 Annual Report" released earlier this year, as of the end of 2023, HEYTEA had a total of 3,200 stores, including more than 2,300 franchise partner stores, accounting for over 70 percent. Data from the third-party platform Zhaimen Canyan shows that as of August 2, HEYTEA's number of stores nationwide had reached 4,191.

Image source: Internet

The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.