Head of consumer watchdog slams Huawei over phone promotion

SINGAPORE — The president of the Consumers Association of Singapore (Case) has taken to Facebook to slam Huawei’s controversial promotion for a handphone that sold out before the vast majority of would-be buyers could purchase one.

Mr Lim Biow Chuan wrote in a post on his personal Facebook page on Monday (July 29) that the advertisement was a “breach of the Consumer Protection Fair Trading Act (CPFTA)” and went on to urge regulators to take the tech giant to task. He told TODAY that he wrote the post in his personal capacity.

The CPFTA protects consumers against unfair practices, which include making a false claim or omitting information that may mislead consumers.

Huawei issued an apology on its Facebook page on Friday (July 26) after frustrated consumers went home empty-handed when the Huawei Y6 Pro 2019 mobile phones sold out within hours on the first day of what was supposed to be a three-day promotion.

In the statement, Huawei cited “overwhelming demand” as the reason a “vast majority” of customers were unable to get the phone at the promotional price.

The Huawei Y6 Pro 2019 was priced at S$54 in conjunction with Singapore’s 54th National Day and targeted at Singaporeans and Singapore permanent residents aged 50 and above as of Dec 31 this year.

The usual retail price of the Huawei Y6 Pro 2019 is S$198.

But excitement turned sour when the mobile phones were sold out, leaving many eager customers, some who had queued up the morning of the promotion, frustrated.

Mr Lim told TODAY that Case has contacted the Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore (CCCS) to discuss the actions that could be taken against Huawei.

He said: “I hope that they (Huawei) will get their act together because they lost a lot of goodwill among the public. Hopefully, their marketing team will be sensible and find a way to win back their customers. I think they did their marketing very badly and ought to be rapped for it.”

On Tuesday, a CCCS spokesperson said the commission is "looking into whether there is a breach of the CPFTA". Case is also engaging Huawei on the matter, the spokesperson added.