Protect consumers' legal rights and interests, maintain market fairness and order. Lanzhou City issues a reminder to regulate gold and silver trading business practices.

Recently, due to the continuous rise in gold and silver prices, sales, recycling, processing, and trade activities such as old-for-new exchanges in gold and silver jewelry in Lanzhou have become increasingly active. Some business operators have encountered issues such as confusing fee items, violations in measurement and weighing, and misleading or deceptive practices, which not only infringe on consumers’ legal rights but also disrupt market order. To regulate gold and silver trading activities, the Lanzhou Market Supervision Administration has issued a reminder, clearly requiring all market participants to uphold fair and orderly market practices.

The reminder specifies that all operators must legally fulfill their obligation to clearly display prices. They should prominently and transparently publish the current day’s sales prices for new jewelry (per gram or fixed price, including purity and weight), gold and silver recycling prices (based on purity per gram), as well as fees for loss, depreciation, processing, and other charges, along with core information such as exchange and trade rules. The content must be simple, easy to understand, and clearly visible. Items not included in the public display are strictly prohibited from charging consumers, and any hidden fees, surcharges outside the listed prices, disguised charges, or mandatory fees are forbidden.

Regarding business conduct, operators are required to adhere to honesty and integrity principles, strictly regulate trading methods such as “per gram for per gram” and fixed prices, and avoid using deception, misleading practices, or weakening unfavorable price conditions to induce consumption.

Measurement is a critical part of gold and silver transactions. The reminder emphasizes that electronic balances and other measuring instruments used for settlement must be verified and approved by legal metrology authorities and used within the validity period of their verification.

Additionally, operators should strengthen industry self-discipline, improve internal mechanisms, proactively conduct self-inspections and rectifications, and promptly address issues. They should also establish and publicize after-sales and dispute resolution procedures, clearly outline processes for returns, repairs, and complaints related to gold jewelry, and actively cooperate with consumers’ reasonable requests for weighing and purity testing. Operators must consciously accept supervision from market regulators, the public, and media.

Reporter: Wei Jiabei

(Lanzhou Daily)