New consumption formats have caused new problems, and the revision of the Consumer Protection Law has been put on the agenda

The epidemic has accelerated the emergence of live streaming, blind box consumption, video and audio platform consumption, etc., bringing more choices to consumers, but also spawning new problems and challenges.

Among them, the blind box economy is expanding rapidly, and the market size of live streaming with goods has exceeded one trillion yuan, which has caused problems such as chaotic selection, false publicity, and difficulties in consumer complaints and rights protection, making it urgent to create a good e-commerce consumption environment.

Protecting consumer rights and improving the consumption environment is a long-term solution to boost the economy and promote the sustained recovery of consumption, and it is also a hot spot of concern for the deputies and members at the two sessions of the National People's Congress in recent years.

Amendment to the Consumer Protection Act

At this year's two sessions of the National People's Congress, the Shanghai delegation submitted a delegation proposal on amending the Consumer Rights and Interests Protection Law.

The bill proposes that, as the basic law in the field of consumer rights and interests protection, the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of Consumer Rights and Interests (hereinafter referred to as the Consumer Protection Law) should refine and enrich the content of consumer rights and interests. The emerging new models and new formats have caused new problems and need to be regulated in a targeted manner. In the era of big data, "big data killing" and "personal information leakage" have impacted consumers' rights to fair trade, independent consumption and the right to know. Therefore, it is necessary to be problem-oriented and continuously improve the applicability of the law.

The proposal proposes that, in accordance with the provisions of the Personal Information Protection Law, it is necessary to clarify in the revision of the law that consumers have the right to know whether their personal information has been collected and used in the process of purchasing, using goods or receiving services, have the right to restrict or refuse to process their personal information, and enjoy the rights to access, copy, change, supplement and delete in accordance with the law.

At the same time, if the content of the standard contract is improved, and it is made clear that if the business operator fails to perform the obligation to prompt or explain the standard terms provided, causing the consumer to fail to pay attention to or understand the terms that have a major interest in it, the consumer may claim that the terms do not become the content of the contract.

In addition to refining and enriching the rights and interests of consumers, the bill also proposes that the obligation to protect the safety of business operators should be refined, and for places and facilities that may endanger the safety of consumers' persons and property, business operators should take necessary safety protection measures and set up warning signs in a conspicuous manner. When consumers' personal or property safety encounters danger or infringement on the business premises, the business operators shall give them timely assistance.

Blind box marketing has been hot in recent years. The bill proposes to regulate the sales of blind boxes and stipulate that where business operators carry out sales by means of random sampling, they should publicize key information such as the rules for sampling, the quantity of goods to be released, and the probability of extraction in a conspicuous manner. It is mainly limited to small consumption in the fields of daily life consumption, literature, art and entertainment, and must not carry out gambling or lottery sales activities in disguise, and must not induce irrational consumption.

For the consumption of prepaid cards, the bill proposes to establish a cooling-off period system in the revision of the law. Shanghai has launched a "seven-day cooling-off period for fitness membership cards" in the industry, that is, consumers can return their cards as long as they do not open a card to use during the cooling-off period. The motion proposes to refer to the cooling-off period system for fitness cards, expand the scope of application of the cooling-off period, and make it clear that consumers who have not used goods or received services within seven days from the date of signing the contract for providing goods or services by means of advance receipts have the right to unilaterally and unconditionally terminate the contract. Where consumers have already accepted services such as free experiences, trials, or gifts provided by business operators, the exercise of the right to rescind the contract does not affect the exercise of the right to terminate the contract.

Standardize live streaming with goods

Zhang Zhao'an, a deputy to the National People's Congress and former vice president of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, submitted written suggestions on the live broadcast economy at the two sessions of the National People's Congress in 2020. This year, he continued to make suggestions on promoting the standardized management of live e-commerce and promoting the healthy development of the new online economy.

Zhang Zhaoan proposed that live e-commerce is not only a new engine to stimulate the vitality of the domestic online consumer market, but also has a positive impact on the employment of young people, and is also an important starting point for the iterative acceleration of rural e-commerce, expanding the consumption of domestic products. However, we should soberly realize that there are still some problems in the development of live e-commerce.

Zhang Zhaoan said that these problems are prominently manifested in: the standardized management system of the industry has not yet been perfected, the industry access threshold is relatively low, and there are repeated problems such as poor quality of goods, sales data fraud, live sales violations, etc., which not only hurt the rights and interests of consumers, but also have a negative impact on the industry ecology. These behaviors and the lack of honesty and credibility behind them have become an important factor affecting the healthy and long-term development of the industry.

In the past two years, more than 20 regulatory policies and industry standards related to live e-commerce have been introduced. Among them, on August 18, 2021, the Ministry of Commerce publicly solicited opinions on the industry standard (draft for comments) of the "Specifications for the Management and Service of Live Broadcasting E-commerce Platforms", stipulating the qualifications, operating conditions and compliance basic requirements that live broadcast marketing platforms should have; stipulating its response to the entry and exit of merchants and live broadcast entities, product and service information review, live broadcast marketing management and services, users and live broadcast subject accounts management and service requirements; stipulating its response to consumer privacy protection, Requirements for consumer rights protection such as transactions and after-sales services; clarified the requirements for information security management.

Zhang Zhaoan proposed that in the next step, it is necessary to continue to strengthen the standardized management of the live e-commerce industry and play the leading demonstration role of the head anchor, and take it as the top priority of strong Internet supervision and promotion of the new online economy. In addition to improving the self-discipline mechanism of live e-commerce, the supervision mechanism of live streaming with goods, the mechanism of live consumption selection, and the fairness mechanism of live broadcast economy, we should also improve the management of the standardized system, promote the positive cultural dissemination of the head anchor live broadcast, and give play to the demonstration and leading role of the head anchor.

Jin Li, member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and director of the National Financial Research Center of Peking University, told the first financial reporter that in order to better protect the innovation of the business model of live streaming with goods, it is urgent to standardize regulatory policies, improve the legal system, strengthen administrative guidance, and promote the benign development of the industry.

He suggested that classified supervision should be carried out according to different live streaming entities. Live streaming with goods can be divided into factory direct sales, government promotions, third-party professional sales platforms, internet red big V with goods, circle of friends marketing, etc., its professionalism, profitability and market influence are different, it is necessary to set detailed regulatory policies for the types of products and live broadcast subjects with live broadcasts, and implement classified supervision.