Carrefour China promised customers Saturday that it will always refund five times the difference between the advertised price and the one charged at the register, after it was blacklisted by Chinese authorities for deceptive pricing.

Chen Bo, spokesperson with Carrefour China, apologized to Chinese customers in an exclusive interview with Xinhua.

Chen said the company has started to work on the pricing issue.

China's price regulator announced last week it had found several retailers cheating customers, including 11 of Carrefour's China stores.

The Carrefour stores must pay a fine five times the amount they overcharged, or 500,000 yuan ($75,757) if they can't calculate that amount, according to the National Development and Reform Commission.

Carrefour China has established both short-term and long-term measures to solve the issue, Chen added.

"We will have our special control group to conduct internal price inspections, with wide coverage and high frequency," Chen said.

Chen said the refund policy will be permanently implemented at Carrefour's 182 outlets in China, with non-implementation of the policy being regarded as violation of company rules.

(Xinhua News Agency January 29, 2011)