AI: do you have to pay if you drop and break something in a shop?
You’re standing in the supermarket with a box of eggs in your hands and CRASH: suddenly, broken eggshells and egg-yolk splatters are all around you. Or you drop – BANG – a whole carton of milk. Besides a bout of sweating and a red face, you also panic. Do you have to pay now that you’ve broken something in the shop? Radar investigated.
No idea what your rights are as a consumer? That’s where Radar to the rescue. The consumer research programme (fun Scrabble word) exposes interesting issues that are also genuinely useful to us as consumers. For example, do you get a refund if the supermarket prints the wrong amount on the receipt? And are you actually entitled to compensation if the supermarket issues a food warning? This time, it’s a case in which it isn’t the supermarket but us – the consumers, that is – who are the troublemakers.
Break it, buy it?
Radar spoke to Joyce Donat, spokesperson for the Consumers’ Association. She explains that, in principle, you are responsible as a customer if you break something in the supermarket. Even if it happens accidentally. ‘Break it, buy it,’ Joyce explains. Still, a supermarket probably won’t ask you to pay for the product. This is because the amounts involved are often so small that the supermarket doesn’t want to make the customer foot the bill. The shop therefore covers these minor costs itself.
No insurance
Many shops are not insured against these kinds of minor mishaps. Radar spoke to a spokesperson for INretail, who explains that ‘contents and goods insurance only covers damage caused by, for example, fire, theft or vandalism’. Shops therefore cannot insure themselves against accidental damage caused by customers. They process this as wastage, just as they do with products that have passed their expiry date.
Expensive items
A box of eggs or a carton of milk won’t break the bank. But what if you drop and break a very expensive item? A bottle of perfume, for example, or the latest iPhone model in the Apple Store? In that case, things are slightly different. The customer is then expected to pay the value of the broken product. Fortunately, you can use your liability insurance for this. If you don’t have one, you’re out of luck.
Children
It may also happen that you’re out with your children, but your sweet little ones decide to go on the warpath. If your child is under 14 and breaks something in the shop, you as the parent are responsible. Always. Teenagers aged 14 and 15 are a grey area. Don’t want to accept responsibility? Then you must be able to prove that you could not have prevented your child’s behaviour. From the age of 16, children are responsible for their own behaviour – although, as a parent, you may be held financially liable until your child turns 17.
Also read:
- How does a supermarket recall actually come about?
- The plastic surcharge: this is how it works in supermarkets
- These are the most ridiculous supermarket products, according to you
Source: Radar/AVROTROS
