Consumers are wary
In this era of rapid technological development, the rights and interests of consumers have been valued and protected like never before. Some unscrupulous businesses still take advantage of consumers' trust in well-known brands to sell counterfeit products with shoddy quality, which seriously infringes on the legitimate rights and interests of consumers. This behavior not only causes financial losses, but also damages consumer trust in the market.
There was a sad case where a young lady spent 4,800 yuan on a mobile phone called "Huawei". For this price, she originally thought it was a lot of investment, and she expected to use it for a few years. Who knew that a year later, when she was about to send her mobile phone for repair, she was told that it was simply a "TD Tech" copycat machine. She was shocked and outraged, feeling badly deceived and insulted.
Cases like these reflect the fact that in today's society, the rights of consumers are still at risk of being violated. In order to seek personal gains, some lawbreakers manufacture and sell counterfeit and shoddy goods and deceive consumers with impunity. They not only cause economic losses to consumers, but also destroy consumers' trust in goods and services. Consumers must be vigilant when purchasing goods and receiving services, and beware of being deceived.
1. It is difficult to defend rights
Due to the lack of effective regulatory and remedial channels, it is often difficult for deceived consumers to protect their rights and interests. Even if you find out that you have been scammed, it can be difficult to find reliable evidence and avenues to make complaints and claims.
Take the example of the aforementioned lady who was tricked into buying a copycat phone. When she realized that she had been deceived, her first reaction was to protect her rights and interests and claim compensation from the operator. The reality is that she has no way of verifying which merchant sold the counterfeit phone. Even if they do, it is difficult to find strong evidence to prove their accusations.
Sadly, even if she finds hard evidence, she may not be able to get effective relief. Due to the lack of corresponding laws, regulations and regulatory measures, she may need to bear the full cost of proof and rights protection, which is often a heavy burden for ordinary consumers.
Faced with such a passive situation, most deceived consumers can only choose to "suffer in silence" in the end. They are powerless to speak up for their rights and interests, so they can only passively accept losses, while those unscrupulous businesses get away with it and continue to deceive the next consumer.
The existence of such a situation not only harms the vital interests of consumers, but also seriously undermines the fair competition environment of the market. It is imperative to establish a sound consumer rights protection mechanism so that deceived consumers can receive timely and effective relief.
Second: new trends in the industry
With the arrival of the first year of 5G-A commercialization, Huawei and other technology companies will work with operators to actively explore the evolution of 5G-A, build ubiquitous 10 Gigabit networks with ultimate experience, efficient collaboration, green and low-carbon, and high stability and intelligence, and promote the in-depth development of digital and intelligent transformation.
5G has become the hottest technology topic at the moment. Since its commercial launch in 2019, 5G networks have seen rapid growth in coverage and the number of users. According to statistics, by the end of 2023, there are more than 300 5G commercial networks around the world, and the number of users has exceeded 1.6 billion.
The performance of 5G networks is also improving. In a number of authoritative tests in 2023, Huawei's operator network won the first place in the experience test in important cities such as Germany, Austria, and the Netherlands, fully demonstrating the powerful strength of 5G networks.
5G is just the beginning of the Internet of Everything, and there are even broader development prospects in the future. The year 2024 is known as 5G-A (the first year of commercial use of 5G Advanced), marking a new stage of development for 5G technology.
What is 5G-A? To put it simply, it is based on 5G and integrates cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence and cloud computing to further improve network performance and application scenarios. 5G-A will bring the following four core capabilities:
Extreme experience: Through large-scale antenna arrays, millimeter waves, and other technologies, 5G-A can provide a peak rate of up to 10 Gbps, bringing users an unparalleled ultra-fast experience.
Efficient collaboration: 5G-A will support more business scenarios, such as industrial control and Internet of Vehicles, to realize the Internet of Everything and promote the digital transformation of all industries.
Green and low-carbon: 5G-A will adopt a new network architecture design to significantly reduce energy consumption and achieve the green energy saving goal of "0 bit and 0 watt".
Highly stable and intelligent: Through AI technologies such as large models, 5G-A can achieve autonomous optimization and intelligent O&M, ensuring high reliability and intelligence of the network.
In order to seize the development opportunities of 5G-A, Huawei and global operators and industry partners are actively carrying out technology verification and commercial deployment. Up to now, Huawei has helped more than 20 cities launch 5G-A commercial verification and testing.
Taking the Middle East as an example, 5G-A has become an industry consensus. All six GCC countries have completed the verification of 5G-A 10Gbps rate and started incubating new services such as RedCap and Passive IoT.
In China, the three major operators have launched the deployment of 5G-A networks in key cities across the country, and have comprehensively carried out the "five-link" service exploration of connecting people, things, vehicles, industries, and families. Taking Hong Kong as an example, local operators have completed the verification of C-band + mmWave 5G-A 10 Gigabit speed test and started to issue 5G-A fixed wireless access services.
With the gradual maturity and commercialization of 5G-A technology, it will surely bring earth-shaking changes to our lives and promote the vigorous development of the digital economy. As a technology leader, Huawei is working with partners to lead the 5G-A wave.
Three: consumer education
Relevant departments should intensify their efforts to crack down on counterfeit and shoddy goods, establish and improve supervision mechanisms, and standardize market order. At the same time, it is also necessary to strengthen consumer education and raise the public's awareness of anti-fraud.
It is the statutory duty of the functional departments of the government to crack down on counterfeit and shoddy goods and maintain market order. It is not enough to rely on the power of the government alone, and it is also necessary for consumers to take the initiative to raise their awareness of fraud prevention and form a synergy with the government.
Take the case of being deceived into buying a copycat mobile phone mentioned above as an example. If the person concerned has enough knowledge to identify the authenticity of the mobile phone, he can distinguish it when he buys it, and he will not be deceived at all. It can be seen that consumer education is of great significance in protecting consumer rights and interests.
How can consumer education be effective? Both the government and all sectors of society have a role to play:
Relevant government departments should intensify their crackdown on counterfeit and shoddy goods and curb the activities of lawbreakers at the source. It is necessary to establish and improve the supervision mechanism, standardize the market order, and create a good consumption environment for consumers.
Consumer associations and other social organizations should give full play to their role and popularize consumer rights protection knowledge to the public through various forms. For example, we can set up a consumer education column on the Internet, or hold regular lectures in communities, schools and other places to let more people know how to identify and prevent various consumer traps.
The news media should actively participate in it, conduct in-depth reports on some typical consumer rights protection cases, and guide the public to establish a correct concept of consumption. It is also necessary to expose the illegal behaviors of some unscrupulous businesses, so that they have nowhere to hide.
Every consumer should consciously raise their awareness of anti-fraud and be cautious about those seemingly "out-of-the-box" advertisements and promotional activities. Before purchasing goods or receiving services, be sure to verify the authenticity of the information from multiple parties, and remember to be greedy for small gains and suffer big losses.
Only when the government, society and consumers work together can consumer education achieve twice the result with half the effort. Let us work together to build an honest and law-abiding consumer environment with fair competition, and safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of every consumer.