Electronic price scales are indispensable measuring instruments in farmers' markets.
Included in the "Catalogue of Measuring Instruments Subject to Compulsory Management". To further standardize the measurement order in the consumer market, effectively crack down on measurement violations, create a safe and reassuring consumption environment, and truly safeguard the immediate interests of the broad masses of the people, it is necessary to strengthen the monitoring and management of electronic pricing scales in farmers' markets.
In recent years, some unscrupulous merchants have tampered with electronic pricing scales, trying every possible way to shortchange them, which has affected the accuracy of the electronic pricing scales and infringed upon the legitimate rights and interests of consumers. According to the statistics of the compulsory verification of electronic pricing scales in a local market in 2022, a total of 2,900 trade settlement electronic pricing scales were verified, among which 46 were found to be substandard, with a substandard rate of 1.59%.
The non-compliant electronic pricing scales usually fall into the following situations:
(1) The old electronic price scale, having been in use for a long time and not having been calibrated on schedule, has been completely unaware that the weighing value of the electronic price scale has exceeded the allowable error requirement during the usage process. In this way, due to the inaccurate weighing of the electronic pricing scale, the rights and interests of consumers have not been effectively protected.
(2) Illegally installing parts on electronic price scales. The weighing display value of the electronic price scale can be manually changed by installing additional parts in conjunction with remote control. In this situation, the reading of the electronic pricing scale is completely controlled by remote control, and the accuracy of its displayed value can be imagined.
(3) Stick small adhesive tape on the local area where the electronic price scale displays numbers to cover part of the data, or the electronic price scale is not placed horizontally. Many young people who go to the farmers' market to buy vegetables do not pay close attention to the weight and amount displayed on the electronic scale during the weighing process. Moreover, fish, seafood and other items need to be killed on the spot, and after removing internal organs and other waste, it is very difficult to reproduce the accuracy of the weighing on a fair scale.
(4) Replace the chip inside the electronic pricing scale. For instance, during the concentrated special operation for compulsory verification of measuring instruments in the first half of 2022 in a certain area, a seafood stall in a certain farmers' market was found to have no problems with the weighing of electronic scales when the verification personnel were conducting the verification. However, after cracking the cheating password of the keys, the electronic pricing scale entered another cheating mode of measurement. That is, the weight display value can be adjusted by pressing the keys. For example, for the 6kg display value, pressing the number key 1 will show 6.25kg, and pressing the number key 2 will show 6.35kg, and so on, increasing in sequence. How much to press depends on the unscrupulous merchants.
The existence of the above phenomena is, on the one hand, due to the fact that merchants, in pursuit of illegal profits, resort to any means to illegally modify electronic pricing scales in order to forge weighing data. On the other hand, it is due to the fact that the current penalties for cheating scales are relatively clear and it is difficult to obtain evidence, which leads unscrupulous merchants to take a chance and obtain illegal gains.