'We have been told by the commissioner that certain privacy issues will have to be resolved,' said the council's executive director, Joseph Tung Yao-chung.

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data would not comment on the case.

Between January and mid-September, the council penalised 20 of the 70 shops registered with it to serve package tourists for such malpractices as failing to provide customers with full refunds.

During the recent 'golden week' holiday, the council received just two complaints from mainland package tourists, down from 20 last year. But it received 540 complaints up to mid-September, up from 347 in the same period last year and more than the 529 for the whole of last year.

In the same period, complaints against tour guides rose 17 per cent year on year, to 95.

Mr Tung said most complaints the council received concerned refunds. In one case the sum involved exceeded HK$100,000.

The number of complaints directed against shops rose to 439 in the first nine months, against 269 in the same period last year.

Mr Tung said the rise in complaints had a lot to do with recent publicity about channels for mainland tourists to file complaints.

A Consumer Council spokesman said because some package tours charged low to zero fees, tour guides had to push tourists to shop in order to cover their costs.

Zhu Peixi, from Hubei , paid more than HK$3,000 for a seven-day tour to Hong Kong and was told he had joined a 'shopping tour', which meant he must buy something in designated shops.

'The tour guide threatened each of us with having to pay an extra HK$1,200 if no one bought anything,' said Mr Zhu.