Duty free shop company apologises for ‘Chinese discrimination’ at London Airport

LONDON: A duty free company which has a shop at London’s Heathrow Airport apologised on Monday after Chinese customers accused it of discrimination in the implementation of its VIP voucher programme.

“As a global company, we are committed to treating all our customers with respect and in a consistent and fair manner. We would like to offer our sincere apologies to our valued customers,” World Duty Free said in a statement as quoted by China’s Xinhua news agency.

Chinese social media users alleged Chinese customers had to spend more than 1,000 pounds (US$1,383) to qualify for a discount voucher at World Duty Free outlet while customers from other countries needed just 79 pounds (US$109) to receive the 20 per cent discount voucher.

The latest statement is the second by the company since the discrimination row went viral over the past days.

However, there is a difference in the contents of the English and the Chinese versions of the statements, which were issued on Monday night on Facebook.

The English text did not mention Chinese customers explicitly and simply talked about customers or “all our valued customers”, while the Chinese version, immediately following the English one, did mention ‘the Chinese public’.

The company did not respond to requests for an explanation of whether it did indeed discriminate against Chinese travellers.

The statements came amid pressure from the Chinese people who aired their outrage in the social media. The first statement, issued on Monday on Twitter, did apologise, but failed to give a full explanation.

“The VIP programme is designed to reward customers at certain points of the year by offering an attractive incentive on a second purchase.

“After close self examination and having made further investigations, we have taken urgent steps to correct the implementation of this promotion,” said the latest statement from World Duty Free, which is based in Bern, Switzerland. — Bernama