The “Implementing Regulation for the Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Protection of Consumer Rights and Interests” will come into effect on July 1, 2024.

With the development of the internet economy, there have been some new changes in behaviors that infringe on consumer rights and interests. In the traditional consumption market, problems such as false advertising, unfair format clauses, and infringement of prepaid consumption, are prominent. In the online consumption market, problems such as price discrimination, big data fraud, excessive collection of consumer’s personal information, and online live sales fraud, are severe. Therefore, the “Implementing Regulation for the Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Protection of Consumer Rights and Interests” (hereinafter referred to as the “Regulations”) have been issued and will come into effect on July 1, 2024. Here is a brief introduction to several highly anticipated issues.

  1. To prohibit “price assassins”

The “Law on the Protection of Consumer Rights and Interests” stipulates that sellers have the obligation to clearly mark prices to protect consumers’ right to know. However, in practice, there are several “price assassins” behaviors, such as some sellers intentionally set a super high price with an extremely low discount, or promote the price for a small measurement unit of the product, which is definitely heavier or bigger than the small measurement unit. Therefore, the “Regulations” specifies the following rules: (1) without the knowledge of consumers, business operators shall not set different prices or charging criteria for the same goods or services under the same transaction conditions; (2) business operators shall, in accordance with the relevant provisions of the State, indicate the name, price and pricing unit of goods or items, content, price and pricing method and other information of services in a conspicuous manner and ensure that the price tag and price items are complete, the content is true and accurate, and the marks are clear and eye-catching; and (3) where a business operator provides services by means of automatic extension or automatic renewal, it shall draw the attention of consumers to the same in a prominent way before consumers’ acceptance of services and the date of automatic extension or automatic renewal.

  1. To regulate online sales behaviors

In recent years, online sales behaviors have been regulated from the perspectives of advertising and unfair competition. The “Regulations” prescribes provisions from the perspective of consumer rights protection: (1) regarding the platforms’ daily management, it requires the live-streaming marketing platform operator shall establish a sound system for protection of consumer rights and interests and specify the consumption dispute resolution mechanism; and (2) regarding the online sales, it stipulates that the live-streaming content released by a live-streaming booth operator or live-streaming marketer constitutes a commercial advertisement, the live-streaming booth operator or live-streaming marketer shall perform the obligation of an advertisement releaser, advertisement operator or advertisement operator endorser in accordance with the “Advertising Law”. In addition, the “Regulations” also stipulates that the term of validity for undertaking return, replacement, repair and other obligations as agreed between a business operator and a consumer shall not be less than the requirements of the relevant laws and regulations.

  1. To design rules for prepaid consumption

In reality, the problem of online prepaid consumption is extremely prominent. Therefore, the “Regulations” stipulates that where a business operator provides goods or services by collecting advance payment, it shall conclude a written contract with consumers, stipulating the specific contents of the goods or services, price or fees, method for refunding the advance payment, liability for breach of contract, etc.

It could be predicted that during peak periods of prepaid shopping such as “618” and “Double 11” in the future, major platforms will pop up specific rules for prepaid consumption to remind consumers, in order to reduce their liabilities.

  1. To set the boundary of personal information collection

The “Regulations” stipulates that, “Business operators shall protect the personal information of consumers in accordance with the law. When providing goods or services, business operators shall not excessively collect personal information of consumers, nor shall they, by means of one-off general authorization, default authorization, etc., compel or compel in a disguised form consumers to consent to the collection and use of personal information that is not directly related to business activities. Business Operator shall comply with the provisions of the relevant laws and administrative regulations when they handle sensitive personal information such as biometric identification, religious belief, specific identity, medical health, financial account, whereabouts and tracks of consumers as well as the personal information of minors under the age of 14.”