Yang Yu never thought that he would be caught in the dilemma of protecting the rights of medical and aesthetic consumers.
In 2020, Yang Yu, who was troubled by hair loss, came to a store of Xinsheng Hair Transplant Hospital in Chengdu for hair transplant surgery.
But Yang Yu was not satisfied with the results of the operation.
In the process of communicating with medical and aesthetic institutions, the difficulty of defining the surgical effect, the lack of professional evaluation institutions, and the lack of legal support have become new problems encountered by Yang Yu.
On the People's Daily Online's "People's Complaints One-click Rights Protection" platform, Yang Yu is not the only one defending rights after medical aesthetic surgery fails.
People.com.cn's financial survey found that medical and aesthetic surgeries such as rhinoplasty, acne removal, and injection of beauty injections also have difficulties in safeguarding their rights to varying degrees.
In this regard, industry insiders said in an interview that the current lack of standards for the effect of medical beauty surgery, coupled with the difficulty of proving the operation process, has led to many industry chaos and consumer complaints, and the practice standards and behavioral norms of medical beauty institutions need to be strengthened urgently.
Difficulty in evaluating surgical outcomes
It is difficult to determine whether it has failed
Physical and mental exhaustion is a realistic portrayal of Yang Yu's journey of protecting consumer rights in medical aesthetics.
"The medical and beauty agency suggested me to perform the top of the head encryption operation, but the hair transplant operation is too painful and requires a recovery cycle. I don't want to continue." He said that the hair transplant contract clearly stated that the survival rate of implanted hair follicles was 95%, but the actual survival rate How much is difficult to measure.
There are both native hair and implanted follicle hair on the top of the head, and it is impossible to manually calculate it one by one.
Due to the lack of professional testing equipment to detect the survival rate, consumers can only judge by subjective feeling.
Netizens commented on the failure of hair transplant on the platform of People's Daily Online "People's Complaints and One-click Rights Protection".
Li Li also has a similar difficult experience of rights protection as Yang Yu.
In March this year, Li Li went to the Fuzhou Victoria Plastic Surgery Clinic for a nose synthesis and double eyelid repair surgery.
"The doctor made me a unilateral ear cartilage + prosthesis, but I recently found that my nostrils often bleed because the surgically implanted prosthesis is about to break through the tip of the nose." "The platform said, "My double eyelids are really too thick at present, which affects the appearance. I think it is a failed operation, and the communication with the medical and aesthetic institutions is not smooth."
Netizens left a message on the "People's Complaint One-click Rights Protection" platform that the laser treatment of facial acne pits failed.
Meng Bo, executive director of the Digital Economy and Legal Affairs Department of Beijing Jingshi Law Firm, told People.com.cn that in the actual cases of rights protection in medical aesthetic surgery, choosing between medical disputes and contract disputes is also one of the difficulties in rights protection.
"If you choose a contract dispute, it is difficult to have a professional third-party appraisal report on the medical beauty effect involved in the contract, and in the medical beauty consumer litigation, the appeals made by consumers are largely subjective." Meng Bo said, In judicial practice in various places, the specific legal provisions applicable to different medical aesthetic dispute claims are not exactly the same, which makes it difficult to promote the protection of medical aesthetic consumer rights.
Zheshang Securities believes in the research report that the results of medical beauty consumption lack standards, and the success of surgery depends a lot on consumers' definition of beauty.
Therefore, the probability of disputes in medical aesthetic treatment is relatively high, and it is necessary to reduce the occurrence of disputes through pre-communication and post-event services.
Meng Bo believes that although the medical beauty industry in my country is developing rapidly, the entry threshold for medical beauty institutions is still relatively low. There are many elephants, many complaints, and it is difficult to defend rights.
In addition, the low cost of illegality and high cost of rights protection are also an important reason for the repeated prohibitions in the medical beauty industry.
Sudden increase in disputes makes it difficult to defend rights
Urgently need a clear solution
Not long ago, a video of Liu Mouming, the female owner of Joy Plastic Surgery in Jinan, Shandong, beating up a customer attracted widespread attention.
Since then, the Jinan Public Security Bureau issued a notice saying that after the case was filed and investigated, the criminal suspect Liu Mouming was suspected of illegal detention and was criminally detained according to law.
According to the complaint data on the official website of the China Consumers Association, from 2015 to 2020, the number of complaints received by the National Consumers Association increased from 483 to 7,233 in the medical beauty industry, and the number of complaints increased by nearly 15 times in five years.
People.com.cn randomly selected 5 medical and aesthetic institutions on the Internet, and consulted the medical and aesthetic institutions as medical and aesthetic consumers. When asked "how to deal with problems if there is a problem", the customer service staff are mostly in circles and calibers. reply.
According to industry insiders, it is often handled with reference to the "Standards for Determining the Degree of Injury and Disability of the Human Body". For those that do not cause organ deformities and dysfunctions, even if consumers think that their appearance is affected, it is difficult for identification agencies to judge the degree of damage.
The consumption level of medical beauty is not low, but even if it is identified as the responsibility of medical beauty institutions, it is mostly based on the relevant judicial interpretations of personal injury compensation, and the amount of compensation is not high.
For mental injury, it is more difficult to assess the scope of compensation.
Since 2017, the regulatory policies and rectification actions of the medical beauty industry have been sorted out.
The growing number of consumer complaints is the "Sword of Damocles" hanging over the head of medical and beauty companies.
Yonghe Medical Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Yonghe Medical"), which was IPOed not long ago, has received fines many times due to irregular medical practices and other reasons, and there are complaints from consumers.
In the prospectus submitted to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, it indicated its own major risk factors: "We face the inherent risks of medical malpractice, negligence, medical negligence, and misconduct claims arising from operations, and resolving such incidents may incur huge costs. and materially and adversely affect our reputation and business."
At present, the practice standards and service quality of the medical beauty industry are still far from consumer expectations.
"Especially now, there is a lack of practicing license registration and practicing physicians in medical beauty institutions, which makes it difficult to guarantee the effect of medical beauty surgery to a certain extent, and brings difficulties to rights protection litigation." Meng Bo said that consumers before undergoing medical beauty surgery , you should find an institution with corresponding qualifications.
For example, it can be verified through the hospital practice registration inquiry on the official website of the National Health Commission.
At the same time, it is also necessary to keep relevant evidence such as medical beauty contracts, photos before and after plastic surgery, medical information, call records, chat records, brochures, etc. in order to safeguard rights.
Some people in the industry believe that effectiveness and safety are always the practical issues that consumers are most concerned about. It is necessary to further unblock the channels for consumers to legally protect their rights, improve the effect of industry self-discipline, and put strict supervision in the front, so as to truly make consumers "beauty at ease". .
(At the request of the interviewer, Yang Yu and Li Li are pseudonyms in the text)