A married man in southern China is reportedly preparing to sue a pharmacy for invasion of privacy after a failed mobile payment for birth control pills led his wife to discover his affair.
According to multiple reports, the man visited the Pinggang branch of Dashenlin Pharmacy in Yangjiang, where he tried to buy contraceptives using his mobile app. The payment—approximately $2.20—didn’t go through due to a technical issue.
When staff later attempted to collect the payment by calling the number linked to his membership card, they reached his wife. She asked what the purchase was, and the employee confirmed it was for birth control pills.
The man now claims that this interaction destroyed two marriages: his own and that of his mistress. “Now my wife knows everything, and two families are on the brink of disintegration,” he wrote in a Weibo post reported by South China Morning Post. “I want to know—does your pharmacy bear any responsibility?”
Man Threatens Lawsuit Against Pharmacy After Wife Learns About Affair
He’s provided screenshots of the chat between his wife and the pharmacy clerk, the original receipt, and a police report dated August 12. Legal experts, however, are not convinced he has a case.
“The man’s infidelity is the primary cause of the family breakdown, and he must accept responsibility for his actions,” Fu Jian, director of Henan Zejin Law Firm, told Elephant News via SCMP. He explained that unless the man can prove the pharmacy willfully disclosed sensitive personal information with malicious intent, the staff’s follow-up call looks more like standard procedure than sabotage.
The story has gained traction on Chinese social media, where most commenters have responded with ridicule rather than sympathy. One user wrote, “He cheats on his wife, is too stingy to buy his own condoms, uses her pharmacy membership card, and then blames the store when he gets caught. What a joke.” Another called him a “drama king” and asked why the clerk should take the fall for his affair.
This isn’t the first time someone has tried to blame a pharmacy for marital collapse. In 2018, a Long Island man accused CVS of violating privacy laws after it allegedly revealed his erectile dysfunction prescription to his wife.
Whether this latest case reaches court remains to be seen. But judging by public opinion so far, a phone call didn’t cause the real damage—it was caused by the choices that came before it.
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