Why are Chinese consumers being taken for a ride?

While Chinese consumers continue to be attracted to high-end foreign brands, especially those whose consumption is most conspicuous such as fashion accessories and cars, the fairly constant revelations of some foreign brands neglecting, even disregarding, Chinese consumers' rights are astounding.

This is all the more shocking because of the increasing reliance of foreign brands on Chinese consumers. The most recent example, hopefully not part of a terrible trend, involves the global brand Mercedes-Benz. And most alarming about this case is not the apparent never-ending Mercedes-Benz insouciance but the fact that a new model was delivered to a customer with a major fault: an engine oil leak. The scandal took place in Xi'an, Shaanxi province.

Sadly, Mercedes-Benz joins a growing list of once mighty global brands that continue to fail Chinese consumers. Global fashion brand Zara, too, blotted its copybook big time in China recently.