In today's rapidly developing digital economy era, consumer rights protection is particularly important. With the proliferation of online shopping and the diversification of online services, consumers face many challenges while enjoying convenience, such as false publicity, personal information leakage, and unfair transactions. To further strengthen consumer rights protection and build a fair, transparent, and safe consumption environment, the "Implementation Regulations of the Consumer Rights Protection Law of the People's Republic of China" (hereinafter referred to as the "Regulations") was passed on February 23, 2024, and came into effect on July 1, 2024. The "Regulations" provide provisions on new areas and issues of great concern to consumers, such as prepaid consumption, live streaming sales, personal information protection, "unfair terms," and "big data price discrimination."

Prohibiting Big Data Price Discrimination

With the continuous development of artificial intelligence, big data models, and other scientific technologies, merchants who have vast consumer consumption information can predict the maximum price a specific consumer is willing to pay for a particular product based on that consumer's behavior patterns, thereby maximizing their profits. This is the phenomenon of "big data price discrimination."

Case: Mr. Wu is a frequent business traveler who habitually uses a well-known online travel platform to book flights. One day, he planned to book a round-trip flight from Shanghai to Beijing for an upcoming business meeting. To ensure he got the best price, Mr. Wu decided to search for the same flight's ticket price at the same time using his regular account (premium member account) and a newly registered regular account. However, the search results were surprising: the premium member account showed a round-trip ticket price of 3,000 yuan, while the same flight round-trip ticket price searched on the newly registered account was only 2,600 yuan, a difference of 400 yuan. Mr. Wu was puzzled because, under normal circumstances, premium members should enjoy more discounts, not higher prices. Mr. Wu immediately contacted the online travel platform's customer service to inquire why this happened. The customer service representative replied that the platform dynamically prices based on various factors such as users' search history, purchase frequency, and membership level, but remained tight-lipped about why premium members need to pay higher prices.

In the above case, the travel platform's behavior of raising premium member ticket prices without legitimate reasons clearly constituted price discrimination against consumers and infringed upon Mr. Wu's legitimate rights. To properly address this situation, the "Regulations" stipulate that operators shall not set different prices or charging standards for the same goods or services under equal transaction conditions without the consumer's knowledge. Mr. Wu's situation is not an isolated case; with the continuous development of artificial intelligence and big data technology, similar price discrimination behaviors may occur in various fields. Therefore, the introduction of the "Regulations" has important practical significance; it not only provides legal protection for consumers but also promotes operators to use big data technology more standardizedly, ensuring fair competition in the market and protecting consumers' legitimate rights and interests.

Regulating Live Streaming "Sales" Chaos

With the rise of "live streaming" marketing models, consumers are increasingly making purchases through live streaming platforms and buying daily necessities. However, what follows is an increase in legal disputes related to live streaming e-commerce shopping. The Director of the Law Enforcement Inspection Bureau of the State Administration for Market Regulation stated that in the past 5 years, China's live streaming e-commerce market has grown by 10.5 times, while complaints and reports have increased by 47.1 times, significantly higher than traditional e-commerce. To fully protect consumer rights and rectify the current chaos on live streaming platforms, the "Regulations" have made many innovative regulatory provisions targeting the characteristics of live streaming and prominent issues.

Regarding the current situation of "false promotion" in live streaming sales, the "Regulations" explicitly state that streamers and live streaming platforms must adhere to the principles of truthful, accurate, and complete information disclosure when promoting goods or services. Operators providing goods or services through the internet, television, telephone, mail order, or other methods shall prominently mark or explain their true name and trademark on their homepage, video screen, voice, product catalog, etc.

For live streaming platforms, the "Regulations" require them to assume stricter regulatory responsibilities. Live streaming marketing platform operators shall establish and improve consumer rights protection systems and clarify consumer dispute resolution mechanisms. When consumer disputes occur, live streaming platform operators shall provide consumers with relevant information about the live streaming room operator and live streaming marketing personnel, as well as necessary information such as relevant business activity records, upon the consumer's request.

Finally, the "Regulations" also make provisions on marketing behaviors for live streaming sales. Currently, relevant provisions such as the "Advertising Law of the People's Republic of China" have made different provisions for goods such as food and health products. However, because live streaming platforms are not subject to advertising platform constraints, they can often circumvent relevant "Advertising Law" restrictions to achieve the effect of promoting goods. To eliminate this phenomenon, the "Regulations" require that live streaming room operators and live streaming marketing personnel who provide commercial advertising live streaming content shall fulfill the obligations of advertising publishers, advertising operators, or advertising spokespersons in accordance with the relevant provisions of the "Advertising Law of the People's Republic of China."

Rectifying "Unfair Terms"

Due to the dominant position of operators compared to consumers, they often "set traps" in contracts signed with consumers, which leads to consumers facing numerous obstacles when trying to protect their rights even when their rights have been infringed.

Mr. Zhang, a consumer in Shanghai, purchased an online education service through a well-known online platform, which was provided by a company located in Beijing. During the purchase process, Mr. Zhang completed all purchase steps following the website prompts and did not notice the standard terms regarding dispute resolution in the service agreement, which stated: "All disputes arising from or related to this agreement shall be submitted to the Beijing Arbitration Commission for arbitration in accordance with its arbitration rules." After the service began, Mr. Zhang found that the course content was seriously inconsistent with the promotion, and the teaching quality was poor, so he requested a refund and compensation. After failing to resolve the issue through communication with the merchant, Mr. Zhang decided to take legal measures to protect his rights. When he was preparing to file a complaint with the Shanghai local consumer protection agency and considering filing a lawsuit, he noticed the jurisdiction clause in the service agreement for the first time. If the dispute resolution clause took effect, Mr. Zhang could only submit an arbitration application to the Beijing Arbitration Commission, which would unreasonably increase his cost of protecting his rights.

To protect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers who encounter the same problems as Mr. Zhang, the "Regulations" stipulate that operators shall not use standard terms to unreasonably exempt or reduce their responsibilities, increase consumers' responsibilities, or limit consumers' rights to change or terminate contracts according to law, choose litigation or arbitration to resolve consumer disputes, choose other operators' goods or services, etc. According to the relevant provisions of the Civil Code, sales contract disputes as breach of contract claims can generally be under the jurisdiction of the people's court at the defendant's domicile or the place of contract performance. For online consumption dominated by market players, both the buyer's domicile and the place of delivery have jurisdiction. To increase consumers' cost of protecting their rights, some operators often stipulate arbitration or the operator's location through standard terms. Therefore, the "Regulations" require operators not to unreasonably limit consumers' right to choose litigation or arbitration to resolve consumer disputes through standard terms. In this case, Mr. Zhang can request the court to confirm that the standard terms regarding dispute resolution are invalid, thereby reducing the cost of protecting his rights.

Gym "Running Away"?

With social development, services such as gyms and barbershops have gradually become indispensable parts of residents' daily lives. Providers of these services often offer a "prepaid card" consumption model: consumers prepay a certain amount to the operator, and the operator provides goods or services to consumers in installments over a specified period according to the contract. However, conflicts arising from the inability to refund prepaid cards due to such merchants "running away" are not uncommon.

Case: Ms. Wang is a citizen enthusiastic about fitness. To facilitate her exercise, she purchased a two-year gym membership at a well-known chain gym in March 2023, worth 5,000 yuan. At the time of purchase, the gym staff promised her first-class fitness equipment and quality service, which made her very satisfied. However, good times did not last long.In June 2023, Ms. Wang went to the gym as usual, only to find the gym doors closed and the equipment inside cleared out; it had clearly ceased operations. She immediately contacted the gym staff but found their phone numbers unreachable and their WeChat and other contact methods blocked. After further investigation, they discovered that this gym had multiple complaints and disputes before ceasing operations. Faced with the gym's sudden closure and running away, Ms. Wang and other members felt very helpless and angry. They not only lost the gym and opportunities to exercise but also wasted thousands of yuan on gym membership fees. They tried to protect their rights through legal channels, but due to lack of sufficient evidence and the gym's deregistered corporate identity, their path to protecting their rights was extremely difficult.

To prevent the occurrence of the above situations, the "Regulations" stipulate that when operators face significant business risks that may affect their ability to normally provide goods or services according to contract terms or trading practices, they shall stop collecting prepaid payments. When operators decide to cease operations or relocate their service premises, they shall inform consumers in advance and fulfill the obligations stipulated in Article 21 of these "Regulations." Consumers have the right, in accordance with national relevant regulations or contract terms, to request operators to continue fulfilling their obligations to provide goods or services, or to request a refund of the unused prepaid balance.

The above provisions provide a solution to the "difficulty in protecting rights" issue regarding prepaid card disputes to a certain extent, by explicitly requiring service providers to stop collecting prepaid payments when facing significant business risks that may affect the normal provision of goods or services, and ensuring that when deciding to cease operations or relocate service premises, they must inform consumers in advance and fulfill the obligations stipulated in Article 21 of these "Regulations." These provisions not only strengthen the protection of consumer rights but also serve as a warning to service providers.

Telemarketing Calls Are Annoying

The "Regulations" stipulate: Without the consent of consumers, operators shall not send commercial information to consumers or make commercial calls to consumers. If consumers consent to receive commercial information or commercial calls, operators shall provide clear and convenient methods for cancellation. If consumers choose to cancel, operators shall immediately stop sending commercial information or making commercial calls. A peaceful life is an essential component of the right to privacy, and it is also the most basic respect that operators should show to consumers. Without the consent of consumers, operators shall not arbitrarily obtain and use consumers' personal information to send commercial information or make commercial calls.

Conclusion

The introduction and implementation of the "Implementation Regulations of the Consumer Rights Protection Law of the People's Republic of China" marks a solid step forward for China in the field of consumer rights protection. The "Regulations" provide clear legal norms and guidance for new problems and challenges emerging in the digital economy era, such as big data price discrimination, live streaming sales chaos, and prepaid card consumption risks. It not only strengthens the responsibilities and obligations of operators but also provides consumers with more comprehensive and powerful rights protection. By regulating market order and cracking down on illegal behavior, the "Regulations" will help build a more fair, transparent, and safe consumption environment, further enhancing consumer satisfaction and trust.