In March 2022, Wang placed an order to buy a bag of sugar-free lotus root flour on an online platform, and after receiving the product, he thought that the carbohydrate content of lotus root flour was higher than the national standard, so he complained to the local market supervision and administration bureau to try to ask for a refund.
After investigation, the Market Supervision Bureau determined that the content of various ingredients in this bag of lotus root flour met the relevant national industry standards, and the online platform rejected Wang's refund application. Wang was very dissatisfied with this result, so he tried to take revenge on the merchant.
After planning, Wang visited the online store three times in October 2022, paid 18,222.28 yuan, placed 10 orders, and ordered 1,209 bags of instant noodles, 781 packs of biscuits, 396 bottles of drinks, and 94 cans of oatmeal. After that, after checking the order status, Wang will apply for a refund and return when the merchant sends the goods or is ready to send the goods. In the instructions for applying for a refund, Wang deliberately filled in some abusive words, saying that the merchant was a "professional liar", "cheating", etc., and in the delivery address column, he deliberately filled in an unbelievable address, such as "XX Martian scene" and so on.
Wang's operation deliberately chose to be on the eve of the "Double Eleven" online sales event, which caused merchants to worry and suspect Wang's malicious orders and returns. Due to Wang's frequent orders and returns, the merchant's rating declined, and he was unable to participate in the "Double Eleven" activity, which greatly affected sales and damaged his business reputation.
The merchant believes that Wang's behavior directly led to the store's refund rate soaring, ratings declining, and sales declining. As a result, the merchant began to fight back, suing Wang in court on the grounds that the merchant's reputation rights were damaged, asking the court to order Wang to stop the infringement, apologize, and compensate for economic losses of 50,000 yuan.
Wang argued that "consumers should enjoy the right and freedom to place orders and apply for refunds and returns, and their actions have no impact on the operation of the online store, and asked the court to reject the online store's litigation claim." ”
When hearing the case, the court held that Wang was not properly exercising the consumer's right to return the goods, but abusing his civil rights. Wang's conduct has constituted the defamation infringement of the online store involved in the case. Due to Wang's frequent orders, large quantities, and frequent applications for refunds, there is a subjective malicious purpose that causes the reputation of the online store to be damaged. That is, Wang did not make a real purchase, nor did he properly exercise the right to return the goods because the products were defective, and his purpose was to retaliate against and harass the online store involved in the case through the intention of falsely purchasing the products and the intention of returning them maliciously, which constituted an infringement of the reputation of the online store involved in the case.
Article 25 of the Law on the Protection of Consumer Rights and Interests stipulates that consumers can enjoy the "seven-day right of return without reason" through online shopping, and consumers can exercise the right to return goods without reason if they find that the products purchased online are defective. However, Article 132 of the Civil Code stipulates that "civil subjects shall not abuse civil rights to harm the legitimate rights and interests of others", which is also binding on consumers.
The Law on the Protection of Consumer Rights and Interests establishes the right of return without reason because consumers cannot directly distinguish the quality of the products they purchase when shopping online, resulting in consumers' right to know and right to choose are limited by visual distance, and may be affected by the exaggerated publicity of merchants. In order to protect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers, the Law on the Protection of Consumer Rights and Interests stipulates that consumers have the right to return goods without any reason. As long as the consumer exercises this right properly, there is no restriction. However, the consumer's right to return goods is a civil right, and the exercise of this civil right must also be lawful. In other words, when consumers exercise their civil rights, they must exercise them in accordance with the law and cannot abuse their rights. If consumers deliberately harm the interests of the state, the public interest or the legitimate rights and interests of others when exercising their rights, they will also bear civil liability.
In this case, Wang used the right to return goods and refund to intentionally infringe on the legitimate rights and interests of the merchant, which constituted a reputation infringement, and in accordance with the law, Wang should bear the corresponding legal responsibility for the infringed merchant.
In the face of the court's trial, Wang finally realized his mistake in the last trial, apologized to the owner of the online store in court, and took the initiative to compensate part of the loss of the online store. After the two parties reached a settlement, the two parties settled the case through mediation.
The case reported on the Internet is real, and it is also a very typical case of civil disputes caused by online shopping. In the Internet era, shopping is very convenient, because the quality of online goods cannot be guaranteed, disputes between consumers and merchants often occur.
Online shopping is the need for integrity, online shopping integrity mainly involves three aspects, one is the integrity of product quality, the second is the integrity of timely delivery, and the third is the integrity of after-sales service.
Many online stores have joined third-party settlement platforms, and in the vast majority of cases, online stores can basically provide honest services. With the participation of third-party platforms, consumers' evaluation of online stores is very important, and the business reputation of merchants needs to be well received by consumers.
When exercising their personal rights, online shopping consumers must do so for the purpose of protecting their legitimate rights, and not for the purpose of obtaining illegal benefits or retaliating against the online store or intentionally damaging the reputation of the online store. In this case, Wang deliberately damaged the reputation of the online store, so he faced the risk of losing the lawsuit after the online store sued. In the face of legal deterrence, he finally chose the plan of admitting the mistake of compensating for the loss, avoiding greater losses.
This is a typical painful lesson of "losing the wife and losing the army", and citizens must have a clear sense of legal boundaries in order to exercise their civil rights. If a consumer abuses his or her civil rights for an improper purpose, he or she will be retaliated by the other party and may be punished by law.
In recent years, there have often been cases of consumers claiming three or ten times as many as the form of anti-counterfeiting, and after careful study, it will be found that many online shopping claims in the form of anti-counterfeiting are claims after creating shopping traps by taking advantage of the right to claim compensation granted by the law. Some of these anti-counterfeiting acts for the purpose of claiming compensation have been supported by the court's judgment, and some have been refuted by the court's judgment, which shows that the abuse of civil rights and the purpose of claiming compensation for the purpose of infringing on the legitimate rights and interests of others will not all succeed.
All in all, this case is a powerful reminder of consumer rights and legal responsibilities. When shopping online, we should act rationally, protect our legitimate rights and interests, and avoid abusing our rights to harm the interests of others. Only under the premise of wisdom and fairness can we build a harmonious online shopping environment.