Jasmine yogurt, tea Baidao, Lexus 4S stores, etc. were named! The China Consumers Association announced the hot spots of public opinion on consumer rights protection in the first half of the year

On August 1, the China Consumers Association released the hot spots of public opinion on consumer rights protection in the first half of 2024.

In the first half of 2024, a series of pro-consumption policy measures will be introduced, and the "main engine" of consumption will be strong. From the ice and snow economy at the beginning of the year to the holiday economy during each long holiday, hot spots such as cultural and tourism consumption, digital consumption, green consumption, and health consumption have continuously added new impetus to the recovery of the consumer market. However, some hot topics of consumer rights protection reflect that there are still pain points, difficulties and blockages in the protection of consumer rights and interests in some industries, which affect the consumer experience.

The China Consumers Association found that in the first half of the year, problems such as expired ingredients repeatedly appeared in ready-made beverage brands; "Professional store closures" have become an obstacle to the protection of prepaid consumer rights; The chaos of payment for micro-short dramas and the frequent occurrence of content violations; The automatic renewal of the online platform is "easy to open and difficult to unsubscribe"; Concert "pillar tickets" affect consumers' on-site experience; "There are no chickens in the chickens" exposes the problem of "blame" of merchants; Big data of the platform economy is frequent; Consumers buy cars and encounter "price increases" in 4S stores; The chaos of "lantern damage assessment" in the rental market plagues consumers; Cases such as "being live-streamed" to attract traffic to merchants and consumer complaints are more prominent.

Specifically:

1. Expired ingredients and other problems have repeatedly appeared in ready-made beverage brands

Social Impact: 89.8

Topic Analysis:

In the first half of the year, new tea brands such as Shuyi Burning Fairy Grass, Ancient Tea, Tea Baidao, and Mo Yogurt "apologized" on the hot search list repeatedly, and the food safety problems caused by ingredients exceeding the expiration date, poor sense of responsibility of store staff, and chaotic store management processes were an important reason why these brands were exposed by the media. Some brands use "freshly made" as a selling point but cannot ensure the safety of ingredients, attracting consumers to call "collapsed". In related incidents, individual store clerks "tasted it by mouth" and "drank it at most and had diarrhea" reflected the merchants' disregard for consumer rights and interests, which caused consumers to resent it.

Public opinion believes that the current market competition in the tea industry is fierce, and related events have exposed that brands blindly pursue business performance while expanding rapidly, ignoring the essential problem of protecting consumer rights and interests. Public opinion calls on the new tea brand to implement and implement the system on the basis of establishing a strict and sound food safety management system. Especially in the development trend of the industry where the franchise model prevails, some brands expect to use a statement to indicate that the franchisee is "in breach of contract" and will "terminate the franchisee qualification" as soon as something happens, so as to clear the responsibility. Such an approach cannot effectively solve the problem of damage to consumer rights and interests, so it is difficult to restore the credibility of the brand in the minds of consumers.

2. "Professional store closures" have become an obstacle to the protection of prepaid consumer rights

Social Impact: 84.4

Topic Analysis:

In recent years, in some early education institutions, gyms, barber shops, and yoga studios, the group of "professional shopkeepers" has attracted more and more attention from public opinion. In the "overnight closure" incident of many stores in Nanjing, Jiangsu, many consumers reported that "professional store closures" seemed to have become "accomplices" of merchants. Merchants close their stores due to poor management, and hire "professional store closures" to participate in the finishing work, which seems to provide consumers with a way to protect their rights. However, in fact, these "professional shopkeepers" do not respond to reasonable demands such as consumers' negotiated refund of advance payments, or give false promises, which only increases the cost of consumers' rights protection.

Public opinion believes that the practice of "professional shopkeepers" helping "runaway merchants" evade legal responsibility has greatly damaged the credibility of the prepaid consumption business model in the minds of consumers and damaged the business environment. Some media said in the report of "'doxxing' professional store closures" that the "professional store closures" group and related "supporting services" have the risk of gradually forming a gray and black industry chain. Public opinion calls on the relevant functional departments of the state to take measures to regulate and rectify such groups as "professional shopkeepers" who wander in the gray area, determine their identity and nature, and improve the registration and management system of market entities in a targeted manner, so that "professional shopkeepers" have no space to drill.

3. The problem of chaotic payment of micro-short dramas and content violations is frequent

Social Impact: 84.3

Topic Analysis:

With the rapid development of the micro-short drama industry, its payment chaos, content violations and other issues have caused many consumers to "complain". After recharging on the "Peerless Short Drama" APP, I found that the number of micro-short dramas that could be watched was too small; The "Knight Skit" app claims that members can "watch all the short dramas on the platform", but in fact they need to jump to a third-party platform, and may pay extra...... In many cases, consumers often face problems such as "no human customer service can be found" and "the platform stipulates that virtual goods cannot be returned or exchanged once sold". In addition, the inappropriate content of the micro-short drama has also raised doubts about whether consumers can "value the money" after paying. Some consumers said that many micro-short dramas use vulgar, vulgar, and marginal content as "selling points" when they are promoted, and it will make people feel uncomfortable when they swipe their mobile phones.

Since the beginning of this year, "Big Guy, Your Daughter Was Bullied Miserably by Her Mother-in-law's Family" and other micro-short dramas with violations have been removed from the platform, and the production company Kyushu Culture has been interviewed by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television. Public opinion believes that micro-short drama producers rely on illegal content to attract attention, destroy the good ecology of the industry, disrupt the order of online audio-visual program transmission, and have the hidden danger of "bad money driving out good money". In the period of opportunity for the rapid development of the micro-short drama industry, it is necessary for relevant departments to strengthen industry supervision, do a good job of regulating and guiding, and the platform to consolidate the main responsibility and respect the needs and feelings of consumers, which is a necessary move to protect the rights and interests of consumers and promote the high-quality development of the industry.

Fourth, the automatic renewal of the network platform is "easy to open and difficult to unsubscribe"

Social Impact: 83.8

Topic Analysis:

In January, when a consumer unsubscribed from an online platform membership, he encountered an incident of "turning off auto-renewal and still being deducted" on the hot search. Some merchants offer auto-renewal membership services at a better price than subscribing to quarterly or annual memberships, and some consumers turn off auto-renewal immediately after turning on auto-renewal to avoid forgetting when it expires. However, some consumers only found out after being deducted that the automatic renewal not only needs to be turned off in the APP, but also needs to be turned off on the mobile payment side, and even needs to "repeatedly check the guide to find a way to turn it off".

Public opinion believes that the automatic renewal function was originally a "good book", consumers can obtain membership services at a more cost-effective price, and merchants can also use this to increase user stickiness and improve the profitability of the platform. If a merchant ignores consumers' right to know and choose in the process of promoting such measures, and uses bad means to induce consumers to open or prevent consumers from closing, it is undoubtedly "misinterpreting the good scriptures". In addition, auto-renewal involves multiple links such as network service providers, app stores, and payment platforms, and inconsistent renewal policies also lead to poor consumer experience. Public opinion calls on all parties in the industry to follow relevant regulations, before providing such services, consumers must be given a prominent reminder, and there is no obstacle in the service link, so that consumers can easily unsubscribe.

5. The concert "pillar ticket" affects the on-site experience of consumers

Social Impact: 83.5

Topic Analysis:

Since the beginning of this year, topics such as women watching the Phoenix Legend concert and buying "pillar tickets" asking for a refund of one and paying three, and Da Zhang Wei's concert 1,300 yuan tickets cannot see the screen have aroused heated public opinion. Some consumers reported that when they purchased tickets, the platform did not indicate that their location may have problems such as occlusion, and the actual viewing effect of the tickets they bought at a high price was greatly reduced due to the obstruction of their line of sight. When consumers complain to merchants about this issue, they will either encounter mutual prevarication and inaction from the concert organizer and the ticketing company, and their rights protection will be deadlocked; Either the merchant promises to give compensation such as "priority" for the next ticket purchase, but it is difficult to make up for the actual loss of consumers in the process with such painless compensation.

At the moment when the concert market is hot, the audience pursues the live experience but faces the risk of buying "pillar tickets", which is undoubtedly a loss of consumer enthusiasm. On June 20, the Shanghai Minhang District People's Court publicly pronounced the first-instance judgment on the case of Liang Jingru's concert "Pillar Ticket", characterizing the "Pillar Ticket" as a defective performance by the concert organizer, which is a breach of contract, and requiring Shanghai Rubik's Cube Pan Culture Performing Arts Co., Ltd. to refund the ticket according to the tiered refund ratio. Public opinion believes that this case has played a positive role in safeguarding consumers' right to know, the right to choose independently and the right to fair trade, and pointed out the direction for further improving the standardization of the concert ticket sales and refund mechanism in the future, "It is worth all organizers to see".

Sixth, "there are no chickens in the chickens" exposes the problem of "blame" of merchants

Social Impact: 81.0

Topic Analysis:

During this year's "May Day", a consumer complaint incident caused by "no chickens in the chicken" attracted public attention. Some consumers bought called flower chicken in Hefang Street, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, but found that "there is only soil, no chicken" after packing and taking away. In a similar period of time, a consumer complaint in Dali, Yunnan Province about the merchant's "six taels of blueberries sold as a catty" incident also sparked heated discussions among netizens, in which the merchant argued that "Dali sells like this" and other remarks were criticized by netizens. In both cases, the local regulatory authorities took relevant measures in a timely manner after the incident and dealt with the vendors involved in accordance with laws and regulations.

Generally speaking, the enthusiasm for cultural tourism consumption is high during the holidays, and consumers pay more attention to cultural tourism products and services, and consumer complaints and rights protection topics are easy to become hot topics of discussion. Public opinion believes that the violations of individual merchants in some cultural and tourism hotspots are very easy to ferment on online platforms, affecting the public's "first impression" of the local area. In line with the concept of "small things are not small", the regulatory authorities should urge infringing businesses to effectively respond to public opinion concerns, punish violations of laws and regulations, and avoid "a thousand miles of embankment destroyed in an anthill". In addition, in similar incidents, many netizens affirmed consumers' "more serious" behaviors on the one hand, and on the other hand, they also expressed their worries about the difficulty of properly resolving consumer disputes in scenic spots under the constraints of "unfamiliar life" and other conditions. Therefore, the relevant departments and relevant parties should also improve the relevant rights protection channels in a timely manner in response to public opinion demands such as how to quickly and effectively deal with complaints after they occur, so as to eliminate the troubles of consumers.

7. Big data in the platform economy is frequent

Social Impact: 78.3

Topic Analysis:

Booking a hotel "Gold members are more expensive than regular members"; The price of the taxi software "Diamond Member" is higher than that of new members; Three accounts purchase the same flight and the same class, and the price difference is up to more than 900 yuan...... Since the beginning of this year, the incident of big data "killing ripeness" has been questioned by consumers and has repeatedly aroused heated discussions. Among them, some platforms usually excuse their behavior on the grounds of "price fluctuations due to different times and locations" and "discounts for new users", but consumers do not recognize them. Consumers believe that the platform just wants to "get by" on the issue of big data "killing" by virtue of its information dominance.

In many cases, consumers reported that in the process of protecting their rights, they encountered problems such as unblocked channels. Most of the responses of the platform's customer service to consumers are vague and cannot provide practical solutions, and consumers are time-consuming and laborious to protect their rights through litigation, and it is extremely difficult to provide evidence due to technical barriers in algorithms. How to solve this problem that affects the consumer experience in the fields of travel and shopping has become one of the key concerns of consumers at present. The Interim Provisions on Anti-Unfair Competition on the Internet and the Regulations for the Implementation of the Law on the Protection of the Rights and Interests of People's Republic of China Consumers, all of which were released this year, have put forward countermeasures to the "ripeness" of big data, triggering public discussions on how to deal with the chaos in the online market. Public opinion expects that the relevant documents will be implemented as soon as possible to break the situation of "everyone shouting and beating and not many ways" for such problems.

8. Consumers buy cars and encounter "price increases" in 4S stores

Social Impact: 76.8

Topic Analysis:

In early March, a Lexus 4S store in Haikou was pushed to the forefront on suspicion of price increases. In the face of consumer rights protection demands, when interviewed by the staff of the relevant departments, the customer service manager of the store was unimpressed and had a tough attitude, not only could not come up with the company's relevant terms on the collection of value-added service fees, but also bluntly said, "Then you will file a case, and we will identify it." After the video was disseminated on social platforms, netizens were disgusted, criticizing the distributor for ignoring consumer rights and ignoring the bottom line of the law. Subsequently, the company involved issued an apology, and the local market supervision department punished the store.

In the discussion of the topic of the incident, some consumers said that behind the "arrogant" attitude of the store's customer service manager is the phenomenon of increasing the price of picking up the car, which is not uncommon in some high-end car markets, and the dealer's practice of requiring consumers to pay additional fees in addition to the marked price in the name of "pick-up fee" and "expedited fee" seems to have become an "unspoken rule" in the industry for a long time. Public opinion expects that the relevant departments can further clarify the legal boundaries of price increases through effective disposal measures, effectively safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of consumers, and urge auto dealers to enhance their legal awareness and standardize their operations.

9. The chaos of "lantern damage assessment" in the rental market plagues consumers

Social Impact: 75.1

Topic Analysis:

In late March, some netizens posted a video saying that when they surrendered the lease of a house in Yushan, Jiangxi, they encountered the landlord carrying a searchlight to inspect the room inch by inch, and was claimed more than 10,000 yuan. Netizens believe that it is the legitimate right of the landlord to accept the tenant when he checks out, but it is unreasonable to demand a huge amount of compensation from the tenant for harsh reasons that exceed the normal wear and tear of the house.

In addition to Yushan, similar cases have also been exposed by netizens in Jinhua, Nanjing and other places, which to a certain extent shows that the current housing rental market lacks effective and authoritative basis and means to settle disputes. For example, in April, a consumer questioned the "Xinsheng Car Rental" car rental company for deducting the deposit due to minor scratches and demanded compensation, which also sparked public opinion on how to protect the rights and interests of the lessee. Public opinion believes that the popularity of incidents such as "lantern damage assessment" and "lantern car inspection" is a concentrated embodiment of the problem of damage to the rights and interests of consumers in the rental market. This is a warning to all parties in the industry that in the process of promoting the healthy development of the leasing market, it is necessary to further implement relevant safeguard measures to effectively safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of tenants.

10. "Being live-streamed" is a consumer complaint for the merchant to attract traffic

Social Impact: 74.9

Topic Analysis:

The live broadcast economy is becoming increasingly popular, and more and more consumption scenarios such as fitness, eating and drinking, haircuts, and makeup are being moved into the live broadcast room by businesses, but individual merchants do not inform consumers of the fact that they are live broadcasting, resulting in a controversy over "being livestreamed" afterwards. In the discussion of events such as "guests taking hot springs were live-streamed" and "customers doing nail art were live-streamed for 1 hour", consumers believed that the merchant was suspected of "secretly taking pictures", and its behavior violated consumers' privacy and portrait rights.

Public opinion believes that it is understandable for businesses to show real consumption scenarios and promote their own products through short videos or live broadcasts to attract traffic, but they need to be divided into occasions, time periods, and situations, and cannot ignore the legitimate rights and interests of consumers. Consumers buy goods or services in pursuit of a good consumer experience, and if a merchant's live broadcast is offensive to consumers by blindly pursuing "traffic", it is undoubtedly putting the cart before the horse. It is worth noting that the reason why some businesses are keen on live streaming consumption scenarios is due to the platform recommendation mechanism. Public opinion believes that platforms should improve the relevant provisions on whether to allow livestreaming customers' consumption behavior, increase the corresponding management norm system, emphasize the principle that businesses should obtain consumers' consent for live broadcasts, and urge businesses to establish boundary awareness; At the technical level, the platform can also provide mosaics and other means to blur the live broadcast screen, resolve the contradiction between consumer information protection and business promotion, and jointly maintain a healthy and benign live broadcast ecology.

Editor-in-charge: Shi Jian | Review: Li Zhen | Supervisor: Wan Junwei