On March 9, 2020, the State Administration for Market Regulation issued the "Notice on Effectively Protecting Consumers' Lawful Rights and Interests in Relevant Work during March 15th", which pointed out that during the March 15th International Consumer Rights Day, market regulatory authorities in various regions In response to the people's demand for epidemic prevention products and food and drugs, we must actively create a safe and secure consumption environment, further enhance consumer confidence, stimulate consumption potential, promote consumption upgrades, and promote high-quality economic development and sustained and healthy growth.
So for consumers, in the face of various violations of consumer rights during the epidemic prevention and control period, such as price-raising, hoarding, manufacturing and selling counterfeit and shoddy products, how should consumers cooperate with epidemic prevention and control work? At the same time, safeguard your own legal rights? On this consumer rights protection day, Baoxin lawyers hereby provide suggestions on the following common disputes for consumers' reference:
How can I protect my rights when I buy fake and inferior epidemic prevention products?
According to Article 24 of the "Consumer Rights Protection Law of the People's Republic of China" (hereinafter referred to as the "Consumer Rights Protection Law"), if the goods or services provided by the business operators do not meet the quality requirements, the consumers can follow the state regulations and the parties' agreement Return the goods, or require the operator to perform replacement, repair and other obligations. In the absence of national regulations and agreements between the parties, consumers can return the goods within seven days from the date of receipt of the goods; if the statutory conditions for termination of the contract are met after seven days, consumers can return the goods in a timely manner. If the statutory conditions for termination of the contract are not met, the operator can be required to perform Obligations such as replacement and repair. Where the goods are returned, replaced or repaired in accordance with the provisions of the preceding paragraph, the business operator shall bear the necessary expenses such as transportation.
If the business operator knows that the product sold is unqualified and still sells it to the outside world, it constitutes a fraud. Consumers have the right to provide goods or services in accordance with Article 55 of the Consumer Rights Protection Law. The person’s request for increased compensation for the losses suffered by the consumer shall be three times the price of the consumer’s purchase of goods or the cost of receiving services; if the increased amount of compensation is less than 500 yuan, it shall be 500 yuan. If the law provides otherwise, follow those provisions.
In addition, if a business operator knows that there are defects in the goods or services and still provides them to consumers, causing the death of consumers or other victims or serious damage to their health, the victims have the right to require the business operators to comply with Articles of the Consumer Rights Protection Law. Article 49, 51 and other laws provide for compensation for losses, and have the right to demand punitive damages less than twice the losses suffered.
When encountering such behaviors that infringe on the rights and interests of consumers, lawyers suggest that consumers must keep their transaction vouchers during transactions. For illegal acts such as making fakes and selling fake products, consumers can call 12315 and other hotlines to actively contact relevant parties. The supervisory authority may file a civil lawsuit when necessary to report a report, or apply for arbitration as agreed in the contract.
How to protect rights in the face of businesses' "price-up" behavior
On March 4, the Supreme People's Procuratorate issued the "Typical Cases of Crimes Obstructing the Prevention and Control of the New Coronary Pneumonia Epidemic by the National Procuratorate (Fourth Batch)", which included one case of suspected price hikes. Strictly crack down on crimes that seriously disrupt the order of the socialist market economy, such as using the epidemic to drive up prices, hoarding odds, and making huge profits.
Therefore, for the majority of consumers, if they have objections to the price of the purchased goods, they should pay attention to retaining the consumption vouchers, such as shopping receipts, payment flow, shopping bags, physical products, and pictures, videos, and pictures in the process of communicating with merchants. Recording etc. If you encounter merchant price violations, you can report the situation to the local consumer association or call the 12315 hotline to report.
How to protect rights when purchasing invalid anti-epidemic products
According to the "Consumer Rights Protection Law", "Advertising Law" and "Anti-Unfair Competition Law" and other laws and regulations, businesses should provide consumers with true and comprehensive information about goods or services, and must not make false or misleading publicity .
"Consumers have the right to request a refund of goods after they purchase goods due to false advertisements and publicity of the operators. If the operators know that the products do not have a certain effect and deliberately make false advertisements or publicity to induce consumers to buy, it constitutes fraud In accordance with the provisions of Article 55 of the Consumer Rights Protection Law, consumers can also require operators to pay three times the price of the goods purchased.
In the face of epidemic prevention products of uneven quality, lawyers suggest that consumers must carefully screen the true effects of the products, try to buy officially certified epidemic prevention products through official channels and regular pharmacies, and take care of protection in accordance with official epidemic prevention guidelines. As far as businesses are concerned, they must not make false or misleading propaganda behaviors about goods or services for petty gain, otherwise they may bear administrative or even criminal liabilities in addition to corresponding civil liabilities.
Can all contracts be cancelled and refunded during the epidemic?
Affected by the epidemic, some consumers had to cancel their original product or service contracts, most commonly in consumption areas such as tourism and catering. Although relevant departments and industries promptly introduced a chargeback policy to reduce consumer losses, due to factors such as epidemic prevention and control measures and resumption of work policies, merchants were unable to process all chargeback applications in a timely manner, resulting in some consumers' requests not being processed in time , But in the face of consumer refund applications, merchants also need to deal with it separately.
One is completely unable to continue to perform or even if the performance of the contract is unable to achieve the purpose of the contract. For example, our common New Year’s Eve dinner is originally an annual family reunion dinner. If we wait for the epidemic prevention and control measures to be lifted before having a dinner together, it will obviously not achieve the original purpose. The original intention of buying the New Year’s Eve dinner, therefore, the merchant should cooperate in accordance with relevant regulations, terminate the contract and handle the refund.
The other is temporarily unable to perform. For example, a common travel service contract. If this type of contract is not terminated due to the epidemic, it will have a significant impact on consumer rights. At this time, consumers can negotiate with the merchant to terminate the contract or change the contract performance period. . If the negotiation fails, consumers can turn to the supervisory authority or appeal to the court to change or terminate the contract.
How to protect rights in disputes caused by online shopping during the epidemic
During the epidemic, in order to reduce contact, consumers often use online shopping to purchase anti-epidemic items. After online advance payment, merchants have been slow to deliver goods. Consumers face short delivery times of 7 days and 30 days. Due to the deadline, the order can only be cancelled in desperation. In this case, can consumers claim compensation from the merchant?
The Guangdong Provincial Higher People’s Court recently issued guidelines for commercial dispute trials during the epidemic. For disputes arising during the epidemic, specific issues must be analyzed in detail. If the merchants are unable to ensure the supply of the epidemic area, the anti-epidemic items are requisitioned, and the goods are in the epidemic area, etc. Shipment or cancellation of orders shall not be liable for compensation, but if consumers apply for return and claim a refund, the merchant shall refund in time.
In the face of online shopping disputes, lawyers suggested that there are still many unscrupulous merchants during the epidemic prevention and control period. Therefore, consumers must review the sales qualifications of the merchants before buying, and carefully distinguish the quality of goods and historical sales prices. And give priority to choosing a third-party payment platform for payment, and then confirm the payment after receiving the goods. If there is an online shopping dispute, you can promptly seek help from the platform's return and complaint handling mechanism. If you use WeChat to place an order and directly transfer the payment, and the seller loses contact and cannot receive the goods, consumers should report the case in time.
