Shanghai Pudong New District Court has sentenced a Wal-Mart Supercenter in the area to pay compensation to a customer surnamed Lu who had mistakenly eaten three boxes of out-of-date cookies sold by Wal-Mart.

According to local media, the court said that Wal-Mart had cheated the consumer by turning the best-before date on the imported cookies into the production date on the Chinese-language label.

Lu reportedly bought ten boxes of the cookies in December last year, while the best-before date of the cookies was October 16, 2006. He also bought ten boxes of tooth-bleaching powder which claimed to be imported from Japan on the Chinese translation, but it was instead made in Thailand.

Wal-Mart was ordered to return RMB920.6 that Lu spent on the goods and pay him RMB1187 in compensation. Wal-Mart said it would file an appeal on this court ruling.