Currently, the nationwide normalized special rectification of the medical beauty industry continues to deepen, and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate has released multiple batches of typical cases of punishing crimes in the medical beauty field. Public security organs in many regions have targeted online low-price customer acquisition, forced in-store upselling, false advertising, and price fraud as key areas of crackdowns. They have launched criminal investigations into the “low-price customer acquisition + in-store upselling” business model under crimes of fraud and forced transactions, leaving industry practitioners facing severe risks of criminal liability.
This case is a typical beauty-industry-related criminal case that occurred under this high-pressure crackdown. More than 40 individuals in the entire case were criminally detained simultaneously, nine of whom were transferred to the procuratorate for arrest review. Four lawyers, including Attorney Zhou Junwei, Attorney Wu Xiaozhen, Attorney Lin Zhipeng, and Attorney He Ruiping, accepted the entrustment and intervened in the defense. Within two weeks of their intervention, they prompted the procuratorate to make a differentiated decision on the entire case—only one core individual was approved for arrest, while all other individuals received decisions of non-approval for arrest. During this critical window of industry crackdown, the case successfully established an effective distinction between civil business flaws and criminal boundaries, providing an important defense reference for similar medical beauty customer acquisition cases.
Tiered and Categorized Defense Tailored to Individuals
The individuals involved in this case spanned different levels, including the head of the main store, branch managers, and frontline technicians, with significant differences in their scopes of authority, subjective awareness, and degrees of participation. Based on the specific role of each client, our lawyers formulated a phased, tiered, and individualized defense plan: focusing on distinguishing the nature of job-related conduct during the early stage of detention, and striving to submit differentiated legal opinions during the critical period of arrest review, resolutely rejecting a “one-size-fits-all” template defense approach.
High-Frequency Meetings to Build a Solid Factual Foundation
The arrest review period is short, and evidence is secured rapidly, making the time window extremely tight. Our lawyers accepted the entrustment within two weeks of the clients’ detention and completed high-frequency, cross-regional meetings averaging more than three times per person within half a month. During these meetings, the representing lawyers verified every key detail, including online promotion processes, in-store reception standards, style comparison procedures, complaint handling rules, and internal work instructions. Simultaneously, they recorded discretionary leniency circumstances such as family difficulties and confessions/repentance, and provided thorough legal explanations regarding the understanding of charges and evidentiary doubts, effectively stabilizing the clients’ mindsets. This high-density meeting schedule accumulated a solid factual foundation for drafting the subsequent legal opinions requesting non-approval of arrest.
Keeping Pace with New Policies, Anchoring Towards Leniency
Throughout the handling of the case, our lawyers closely followed the latest judicial documents of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate and the adjudication trends of medical beauty cases, precisely grasping the enforcement standards of the special rectification. In the submitted legal opinions, the team, combined with the principle of restraint in criminal law, systematically elaborated on the necessity of arrest and the feasibility of alternative detention measures, minimizing the clients’ criminal risks to the greatest extent possible.
Case Outcome Overview
Under the high-pressure environment of nationwide crackdowns on the medical beauty industry and full-chain accountability by public security organs, Longan Guangzhou lawyers collaboratively advanced three strategies—tiered defense, high-frequency meetings, and the application of new policies—successfully achieving differentiated handling of the entire case. Among the multiple individuals involved, only one was approved for arrest, while all others received decisions of non-approval for arrest.
The handling of this case not only provides a vivid defense model for clarifying the boundaries between criminal and civil liability regarding low-price customer acquisition and tiered upselling in medical beauty stores, but also opens up a viable defense path for similar beauty customer acquisition cases nationwide involving fraud and forced transactions in areas like eyebrow tattooing and freckle removal. At the same time, this case holds significant practical reference value for beauty industry operators to identify compliance red lines and mitigate criminal risks.