Unknowingly, consumers were opened with Meituan monthly payment, causing controversy
Mobile phone applications frequently appear "default routines" need to be vigilant
Our reporter Zhao Yuhan
"If I didn't see a text message reminder, I don't know." Recently, the citizen Ms. Zhang was opened with a loan-based Meituan monthly payment when using Meituan to order food.
Coincidentally, recently, many citizens reported that when they used Meituan's apps, they were unknowingly enabled the monthly payment function. Individual users even failed to repay in time and almost affected their credit records.
The default renewal, default opening of the loan nature function... As of the time of press, a complaint website has accumulated more than 28,000 similar complaints.
Regarding the various "default routines" of mobile applications, experts said that relevant departments need to strengthen supervision and increase penalties. Consumers also need to raise their awareness of rights protection and be alert to various routine traps.
Users inexplicably open online loan insurance to become "old Lai"
"The monthly payment is successful, deduct the amount of 192 yuan, and the consumption of this month will be paid back on the 8th of next month." Such a text message appeared on Ms. Zhang's mobile phone, which made her very confused: "I did not activate the monthly payment, and I have been connected to the bank card. When the deduction was made, when was it overdrawn?"
She is busy opening the Meituan APP page to inquire.
Ms. Zhang found that she had consumed 3 overdrafts this month alone, deducting a 540 yuan limit.
And when this feature was activated, Ms. Zhang looked through the SMS records for a long time and found that Meituan monthly payment was activated in December last year. A text message on January 8 this year said "Monthly payment for January bill 733.45 yuan has been paid. clear".
"The money was automatically drawn from a bank card I linked to Meituan. From the opening of the loan to the repayment, I didn't know it. Now there are so many spam text messages, and if you don't pay attention, you will ignore it." Ms. Zhang was a little scared. .
Not only Ms. Zhang, in recent months, many users have reported that Meituan monthly payment has been inexplicably activated when using various functions of Meituan.
Earlier, a Shenzhen netizen named "Scallion Girl Doing Subtraction" was inadvertently opened the Meituan monthly payment, and due to unknowingly, the payment was overdue.
Although the overdue records were eventually eliminated after communicating with the customer service, the experience of almost becoming an "old man" still made her very unhappy.
Merchants open for high-quality customers by default
Why are so many users unknowingly enabled the lending function?
Don't online loan products require a series of authentications such as personal identity and bank cards?
In response, Meituan’s customer service once replied to the “onion girl doing subtraction”: “Monthly payment is Meituan’s default service for some high-quality customers.”
The reporter found that customers who have opened monthly payment have basically opened payment through Meituan before, binding their personal identity, bank card and other information.
According to some users' feedback, in order to attract consumers to use the Meituan monthly payment method, Meituan Takeaway and other software often bind the monthly payment function with discounts such as red envelopes.
Take Meituan Takeaway as an example. When choosing a payment method, the Meituan monthly payment function is often accompanied by preferential information such as "recommended use" and "free 3 yuan red envelope".
After clicking on the red envelope, the APP will pop up the option "Whether to activate Meituan monthly payment", but there is no detailed introduction of this function in the red envelope interface, and the activation prompt is not obvious.
"Looking back now, I might have chosen a monthly payment just to order a red envelope, and it was defaulted to be the preferred payment method." Ms. Zhang said.
Meituan monthly payment was “ignorant” when it was opened, but it was complicated to cancel.
Ms. Zhang told reporters that compared to "one-click activation", finding the cancel button is not easy.
She finally had to ask questions on Baidu before she found the option to cancel through layers of pages.
Expert platform suspected of infringing consumer rights
In fact, in addition to the Meituan monthly payment, similar "default routines" that induce users to operate are not uncommon in mobile applications. The most common is the default automatic renewal of the APP.
"When I downloaded the Qingyan Camera APP a few days ago, I ordered a 7-day free trial. A few days later, the platform will directly deduct the 3-month membership fee." Ms. Wang felt very helpless, "Only the word free trial was written on the button I clicked. The description of automatic renewal is in the corner of the page. If you accidentally get on the'thief ship'.” In response, the customer service of Qingyan Camera replied: “Automatic renewal is enabled by default when the 7-day free trial is opened, but the user cancels within 7 days. Subscribe, you can cancel the automatic renewal."
Similar automatic renewal "routines" still exist in many mobile applications.
The reporter logged on to a commercial complaint platform and saw that recent complaints about automatic renewal involved many well-known apps such as Mango TV, Qingyan Camera, Almighty Scanner, and Maimai.
Some are to give priority to the automatic renewal option, inducing users to choose the automatic renewal method when purchasing a member; some are to bind free or ultra-low-price trials with automatic renewal.
In response to the issue of automatic renewal, at the end of last year, the State Administration for Market Regulation published Article 16 of the "Measures for the Supervision and Administration of Online Transactions (Draft for Comment)" clearly stipulates that online transaction operators adopt automatic renewal, automatic renewal and other non-active contracts involving consumers If the service is provided in a way, consumers should be reminded in a prominent way.
Where consumers choose the relevant method independently, the online transaction operator shall provide consumers with a significant, free and simple option to cancel or change the relevant method at any time during the entire service period, and pay a significant amount 5 days before the renewal or renewal date. Ways to remind consumers to pay attention.
"Some apps remind consumers in an unobvious way to agree to the terms of service for automatic renewal, which violates consumers' rights." said Zuo Shenggao, a lawyer at Beijing Jingshi Law Firm.
Li Huimin, a professor at the School of Journalism and Communication of Lanzhou University, believes that the “playing routines” of mobile phone applications in paid recharge are actually taking advantage of the weak information position of consumers to achieve the purpose of misleading consumption.
Departments such as industry and commerce, cybersecurity and informatization should assume the responsibility of the main body of supervision and increase the frequency of inspections and penalties. He suggested establishing a "blacklist" system, including companies that have repeatedly violated regulations and failed to rectify them on the "blacklist", and regularly announce it to the public .