Curbing unfair standard terms is conducive to making the "consumption cake" bigger
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On August 18, the China Consumers Association released the Survey Report on Consumer Cognition and Lead Collection of "Unfair Standard Terms" (referred to as the "Report"), showing that 87.88% of consumers have encountered unfair standard terms. After unfair standard terms, over 70% of consumers still choose to continue trading.
(For related reports, see version A4)
In consumption activities, consumers and operators are in a contractual relationship.
In order to ensure the fairness of this relationship, my country's "Civil Code", "Consumer Rights Protection Law" and other regulations have clearly stipulated that the market supervision and other departments have carried out special rectification actions on the standard terms of the contract, and the China Consumers Association and local consumer associations have also "Bombardment" through public comments and other methods has achieved certain results, but "unfair format terms" are still common.
The above-mentioned "Report" once again confirms that "unfair standard terms" have certain concealment and extensiveness in real life, which seriously affects the shopping experience of consumers. Among them, 87.88% of consumers have encountered unfair standard terms. Over 70% of consumers still choose to continue trading, which shows this.
This survey result, to a certain extent, also reflects that the supply and demand ends of my country's consumer market are still not in an ideal state.
If supply and demand are truly balanced, in theory, the status of operators and consumers should be equal, the former should not be strong, and the latter will not be weak.
If the consumer market is truly oversupplied, operators will not show strong performance, because operators face competitive pressures and consumers will have more choices.
From this point of view, the widespread existence of "unfair standard terms" is also due to the fact that the consumer market has not yet achieved true balance or true competition.
It is gratifying that the survey shows that most consumers can choose the right channels for consumer rights protection when they encounter unfair consumption.
To a certain extent, this is expected to curb the "unfair standard terms" and bring about a forcing effect on operators.
However, at the same time, nearly one-fifth of the respondents chose to "endure silently", indicating that the high cost of rights protection and the unsatisfactory effect of rights protection have made consumers lack confidence in rights protection.
In response to the problems found in the investigation, the "Report" proposes that a whole-process consumer rights protection system should be established before, during and after the event, including three points: First, source governance and strengthen prior prevention.
Operators and consumers should enhance their awareness.
The second is process control, strengthening supervision during the event.
For example, vigorously promote the format contract model, and improve the implementation of the format contract filing system.
The third is to seriously investigate and punish and improve post-mortem relief.
This proposal can be described as comprehensive governance.
The author believes that it is necessary to encircle and suppress the "unfair standard terms" as soon as possible.
Consumers, consumer associations, market supervision departments, judicial organs, legislatures, etc. must form a consensus and say "no" to the "overlord clause" from the perspective of their respective responsibilities.
Among them, market supervision departments at all levels must become the vanguard and main body of governance, strengthen contract review, investigation, etc., so that operators do not dare to mess around.
The judiciary must guard the last fair "line of defense".
We must realize that the contribution rate of consumption to the economy is getting higher and higher, but the "unfair standard terms" have a negative effect on consumption, making some consumers afraid to consume and unable to consume enough, which affects the stimulating effect of consumption on the economy.
Therefore, whether the "unfair standard terms" can be effectively curbed is not only related to the rights and interests of consumers, but also to economic growth.
Only by doing our best to curb the "unfair standard terms" can we make the "consumption cake" bigger.
Recently, at the press conference on the operation of the national economy in July held by the State Council Information Office, the National Bureau of Statistics disclosed that the total retail sales of consumer goods in July was 3,587 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 2.7% and a decrease of 0.4 percentage points from the previous month.
One of the reasons restricting the development of consumption is the unsatisfactory consumption environment.
Therefore, to tap and activate consumption potential, it is necessary to fully curb "unfair standard terms" and "overlord terms" and create a fair business environment and consumption environment.
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