Oh No! Luckin Coffee Unilaterally Cancels Bug Orders, Alleged Rights Infringement?

Luckin Coffee's Pricing Glitch Sparks Online Frenzy

On the morning of April 18th, Luckin Coffee attracted enthusiastic participation from netizens due to abnormal order prices on the Ele.me platform. The sudden influx of numerous orders caught many Luckin Coffee store employees completely off guard. A Luckin Coffee barista working that day posted online: "I was the only one on the morning shift today! I was completely stunned!!! I was flying around the bar counter alone, fortunately a colleague who lived nearby came back in time to save me..."

Faced with the sudden surge of orders, Luckin Coffee immediately suspended online operations on the Ele.me platform. Some stores that were overwhelmed by orders also temporarily halted mini-program and counter orders. By the afternoon, these stores' mini-programs and counter ordering returned to normal. In response to this bug, Luckin Coffee issued an apology letter on its official Weibo account during the morning and noon periods, explaining the cause of the bug incident:

Although Luckin stated that they had urgently canceled the abnormal orders on the Ele.me platform and would consider customer compensation with further notice, Luckin's unilateral cancellation of orders drew significant criticism from netizens. According to some netizens, their bug orders showed various issues: many were marked as delivered despite not being shipped... waiting over 4 hours only to have them suddenly canceled... canceled orders weren't refunded, among other problems.

Public Reaction and Legal Perspectives

Regarding Luckin Coffee's explanation that the bug was caused by internal operational configuration errors, netizens responded: "Should customers pay for internal mistakes? Everyone knows that with so many orders, people wouldn't be in a hurry to drink them. They could have delivered them in order. Why unilaterally cancel them? Can't they handle it?"

In response to the sudden bug and the subsequent "unreasonable" handling, some netizens questioned whether Luckin was engaging in malicious marketing, using the bug to maintain buzz for their pride and joy - the coconut coffee series. Other netizens questioned whether this unilateral order cancellation violated consumer rights.

Facing these questions from netizens, lawyers offered their own perspectives. Some lawyers believe Luckin's unilateral order cancellation may constitute a violation of rights. According to Article 53 of the Consumer Rights Protection Law: "Business operators who provide goods or services through prepayment shall provide them as agreed. If they fail to provide as agreed, they shall fulfill the agreement or refund the prepayment according to consumer demands; and shall bear the interest on the prepayment and reasonable expenses that consumers must pay." Therefore, when canceling orders, mutual agreement is required to cancel established contracts (where consumers have completed payment and merchants have accepted the order), with full refunds processed.

Other lawyers believe that according to Article 54, contracts concluded due to major misunderstanding may be requested by one party to be changed or revoked by a people's court or arbitration institution. The discount on Luckin's problematic orders was less than 10% of the original price, far from the normal price, which can reasonably be determined as a pricing error. The prerequisite for a purchase contract is mutual agreement between merchant and consumer, but Luckin's obvious pricing error does not reflect the merchant's true intent. Although many consumers placed orders, the existence of major misunderstanding means the contract can be legally revoked. This means if Luckin's low-priced orders were caused by system configuration errors, Luckin's cancellation of problematic orders would not constitute a breach of contract or rights violation.

However! If there is evidence proving that Luckin intentionally caused the system configuration error for malicious marketing purposes, this would constitute fraudulent behavior. According to Article 55 of the Consumer Rights Protection Law, consumers can demand "refund plus three times compensation; if the additional compensation amount is less than 500 yuan, compensation shall be 500 yuan."

Another lawyer stated: "If consumers place orders knowing it's a merchant system error or knowingly enter into contracts that cannot be fulfilled, then the merchant's unilateral cancellation with full refund means consumers would be considered to have no actual losses."

Luckin's Compensation Plan

In response to yesterday's bug incident, Luckin Coffee posted on its official Weibo account on the morning of April 19th (today): "Regarding the price anomaly at Luckin's Ele.me stores on the morning of April 18th, all losses will be fully borne by Luckin Coffee, and 32 yuan vouchers will be gradually issued to all Ele.me users whose orders were canceled on that day. Additionally, Luckin will compensate users whose orders were canceled due to abnormal waiting times during yesterday's morning rush hour."

Conclusion

Regarding the follow-up handling of this incident, some netizens commented: "While Luckin compensates customers for their losses, they should also show some care for the baristas who were 'flying' around yesterday due to operational errors~"

Image source: Internet, Weibo

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