Interim Measures for 7-day Unconditional Return of Online Purchased Goods (“Interim Measures”) will come into force as of 15 March 2017

To regulate the online market and protect the rights and interests of consumers, SAIC released the “Interim Measures”, which has further specified the “7-day Unconditional Return” policy as stipulated in Article 25 of the “Consumer Protection Law”. The main contents include:

(1)To add 3 categories of goods which shall be excluded from the scope of the ”7-day Unconditional Return” policy

Despite the 4 categories of goods which shall be excluded from the scope of the “7-day Unconditional Return” policy as stipulated in the “Consumer Protection Law”, the “Interim Measures” has added another 3 categories, which are (a) goods which – after being unsealed – are likely to affect the personal safety or life and health of consumers, or the quality is likely to change; (b) goods of which value will greatly depreciate after being activated or used on a trial basis; or (c) goods for which it has been clearly indicated upon being sold that they are near their expiration date or that they have defects. However, the “Interim Measures” has also set several preconditions, such as, the sellers shall make sure that the consumers at the time of purchase have confirmed that the 7-day unconditional return policy does not apply to them; and the sellers shall set an obvious confirmation procedure in the purchasing system, and let the consumers to confirm for each individual purchase.

(2)To prescribe the criteria on defining whether the goods is in good condition

Article 8 of the “Interim Measures” has prescribed if consumers have to open the commodity packaging based on the inspection needs, or to determine the quality of the product, the function of the reasonable adjustment does not affect the integrity of the goods.

(3)To prescribe the rules on returning the goods

① The due time for return. 7 days will begin from the second day upon the receipts of the goods by the consumer.
② To deal with the gifts. The goods shall be returned together with any gifts. If the gift cannot be returned, the sellers may require consumers to pay the premium price in accordance with the pre-marked gift price.
③ The price shall be refunded. Consumer shall get refund of the price paid. Package or full discount activities in the return of some of the goods, resulting in no longer enjoy the discount, according to the purchase price of the goods to be settled, more than a few back.