A couple is fined 66,000 yuan for selling unqualified vegetables. Screenshot of Shenzhen Evening News

Recently, an event of excessive penalties has attracted wide attention in China. A couple surnamed Luo and He, who run a vegetable store, bought 3.5 kilograms of celery from a wholesaler in October 2021. The local market supervision department took 1 kilogram for spot checks. A month later, the couple received the inspection report and were told that this batch of celery was unqualified.

However, the remaining 2.5 kilograms of celery have already been sold in the month and it is hard to get them back from consumers, and the couple couldn't demonstrate the quality of the celery as they lost the receipt of the purchase. As a result, the local department decided to fine the couple 66,000 yuan ($9,604) for selling unqualified vegetables and violating the food safety law in China.

The couple admitted they made a mistake and accepted an appropriate punishment, but they thought 66,000 yuan was overwhelming as they had to sell tons of celery to make that much money.

The punishment has sparked a lot of discussion online with many people questioning whether the fine was too heavy. After receiving the public response, the State Council inspection team started to investigate the case.

The team of the ninth inspection from the State Council questioned the appropriateness of the local department's punishment decision as the couple's illegal income was only 20 yuan (4 yuan per 500 grams). Yan Yandong, deputy director of the Yulin Administration of Market Supervision, admitted that the celery case truly involved excessive punishment when facing the inspectors, according to the China Central Television.

The State Council's inspection team also checked the food administrative punishment ledger since 2021 in Yulin, Northwest China's Shaanxi Province, and found that more than 50 penalty cases for cases involved fines of more than 50,000 yuan, which the involved illegal income was also only dozens or hundreds of yuan.

Chen Xiao, a member of the inspection group, told CCTV that "law enforcement shouldn't be only about its strictness and severity. The market supervision authority should maintain market order and help create a good environment for small businesses."

Netizens agreed with the inspection group's idea and held that the market supervision department should take their actual conditions into account when enforcing the law.