On April 22, the China Consumer Association released the annual report on the protection of consumers’ rights and interests in China (2021).
China Consumer Association comprehensively combed the development process of consumer protection in the form of annual report for the first time. Let’s go and see what the annual report saysp align=”center” style=”text-align:left;”> sort out last year
consumption infringement in key areas
excessive collection and utilization of consumer personal information
Internet platforms provide “free” or “personalized” services by collecting personal information and even privacy. However, consumers may not be able to obtain a convenient, fast, fair and safe “consideration” experience.
App collects and uses “surrounding information” to form a “user portrait”, and consumers often don’t agree with it.
Consumer lending and payment functions require consumers to bind personal bank accounts.
food safety risks still need to be vigilant
There are still many complaints about food safety and quality. The main problems are: food deterioration and expiration, poor hygienic conditions in catering places and non-standard operation; Some online shopping foods belong to three no products; Individual illegal businesses tamper with the production date; Hype false concepts; Online red product flow, excessive food marketing, poor quality stability, etc.
Some well-known brands were exposed to food safety incidents:
Starbucks privately changed ingredient labels and used expired ingredients
Yoshino’s stinky minced meat
Xiaolongkan rear kitchen is dirty and disorderly, and the ice maker is pounded with a broom
RT Mart supermarket grinds overnight stinky meat into meat stuffing and pours sausage
naixue’s tea uses rotten fruit
“fat brothers” meat crab stewed dead crab posing as live crab
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new issues of rights protection caused by consumption of new energy intelligent vehicles
Automobile safety problems, such as sudden acceleration, flameout, oil leakage, abnormal engine noise, brake steering failure, etc.
There are many new problems in the consumption disputes of new energy intelligent vehicles, and there are difficulties in safeguarding rights.
For example, the events of Tesla owners’ rights protection in Shanghai auto show in April 2021 and the on-site rights protection events of Guangzhou auto show owners in November reflect that consumers still have pain points, difficulties and blocking points in the field of automobile, especially in the field of intelligent Internet connected vehicles.
The second-hand car sales information is inconsistent with the actual situation, and the car has quality problems after the transaction.
It has become a “hidden rule” for the sales of some high-end and “hot” models.
outstanding refund problems in prepaid consumption
According to the data of consumer complaints accepted by the National Consumer Association in 2021, there were 80528 complaints about out of school education and training, a year-on-year increase of 43.4%, most of which were related to refund disputes.
After some training institutions close down or run away due to poor management or broken capital chain, it is difficult to recover the prepaid expenses;
In order to avoid the regulation of “no one-time charge for more than three months”, some training institutions have adopted various ways to increase the cost of single course and total training in disguised form;
Some institutions induce consumers to apply for “consumer loans”. After the institutions close, consumers still need to repay the loans on schedule.
minors and the elderly are infringed in various and complex forms
Disputes caused by Wuxi Online Offline Communication Information Technology Co.Ltd(300959) excessive consumption of minors mainly include:
Minors spend a large amount of money to recharge the online game account and reward the anchor. Parents’ application for refund was rejected by the platform.
Minors spend thousands of yuan to buy mobile phones, pets, game cards, etc. when parents find out, they ask for return, resulting in disputes with businesses.
Individual businesses encourage minors to “invest” as “rice circle” idols, or induce minors to consume impulsively in the name of collection, rarity and limitation.
Consumer complaints of the elderly mainly focus on the purchase of health care products, investment in collectibles, financial management, health prepaid cards, TV shopping, online shopping and other fields. The main problems are:
Use small favors, play family cards, mislead the elderly into high consumption by means of false publicity and price misleading, and even empty the “money bag” of the elderly.
Holding health lectures under the banner of “experts”, brainwashing and marketing, obtaining information or defrauding property.
Take advantage of the weak points of the elderly, such as poor identification ability and lack of relevant financial and scientific and technological knowledge, to induce the elderly to buy financial products such as insurance and financial management.
Induce the elderly to invest in the “housing for the elderly” project and illegally occupy the real estate of the elderly.
The after-sales service of TV shopping is poor and it is difficult to return goodsp align=”center” style=”text-align:left;”> six problems affecting the improvement of consumption environment
need to be further solved
The regulations on the implementation of the law on the protection of consumers’ rights and interests have not yet been issued
The publicity system of consumer complaints and the construction of credit mechanism need to be further promoted
The application of punitive damages system and the appeal of “professional beating dummy” have different judgment standards
For example, in the case of lixuanqi v. Fuzhou aipinhui Trading Co., Ltd. online shopping contract dispute, the court of first instance found that the plaintiff’s trading purpose did not meet the definition of “consumer” in relevant laws on the grounds that the plaintiff had filed multiple judicial proceedings in different courts within one year, so it did not support his ten times claim for compensation. In the final judgment made in 2021, the court of second instance revoked the judgment of the court of first instance and supported the plaintiff’s claim of “one refund and ten compensation”.
The consumer class action mechanism has not been fully established
The quality of consumption infrastructure and public service supply needs to be improved
For example, due to inconsistent production standards, incompatible charging interfaces and inadequate management and maintenance
The phenomenon of charging “zombie pile” is common. During the holiday, new energy vehicles lined up in the service area to charge, amplifying consumers’ “mileage anxiety” and reducing consumer satisfaction.
The concepts of scientific consumption and rational consumption need to be consolidated and strengthened
For example, some consumers are still superstitious about operators’ centralized promotion, but price routines and promotion traps such as “price increase before discount” continue to induce consumers to invest more time and energy and overdraw their payment ability.
Some operators use consumers’ greed for small and cheap psychology to induce consumers to consume blindly through improper “algorithms”.
big data ripening and high cost of “niche business” rights protection
bothering online consumers
network platform has a short board of market autonomy
First, the platform’s intervention and control of promotion behavior at specific time nodes are not enough;
Second, there are many problems with the low threshold of live broadcasting, and the management of the platform needs to be strengthened.
new business types and new models challenge traditional systems and governance methods
First, social and sharing marketing is “embedded” in mobile Internet platforms, resulting in new problems in the definition of consumption relations;
Second, the deep integration of online advertising and social marketing challenges the identification of attributes and responsibilities;
Third, the application of technology in advertising marketing puts forward new demands for the innovation of supervision means;
Fourth, there are difficulties in the application of rules in app automatic fee deduction supervision;
Fifth, there are no clear rules for blind box marketing, and it is difficult to resolve disputes over consumer rights protection.
“big data ripening” regulatory problems
The main problems brought about by the “killing cooked” behavior at the transaction level are:
First, it limits consumers’ freedom of price choice, which may induce consumers’ distrust of the market pricing mechanism;
Second, it forms de facto price discrimination, which may infringe on consumers’ right to know, independent choice and fair trade;
Third, personalized pricing expands the diversity of price competition strategies implemented by operators, but it may also have the effect of restricting competition;
It is difficult to protect the rights of “niche business” consumption such as second-hand transactions
Opaque information, buying and selling fake goods, piracy, phishing fraud, sales of contraband and other phenomena often occur on the second-hand trading platform. The transaction rules and governance measures of some platforms are not implemented in place, which makes it difficult for consumers to protect their rights.
Close or poor cooperation with third-party trading platforms. Some third-party appraisal institutions without brand authorization act as “referees” in the identification of true and false brands. Their appraisal qualification and the legitimacy of relevant reports have become the focus of disputes between platforms and consumers.
