● More and more people join various “memberships”, but the experience is not good. For example, some apps attach various restrictions to the membership discounts, and the apps arbitrarily adjust the membership terms during the use of the members, which damages the rights and interests of users, and automatically Renewal fees and suspected false propaganda, etc.
● Step by step to induce users to recharge, it is a consumption scam, and the merchant may have fraudulent behavior.
According to the Consumer Rights Protection Law, consumers have the right to demand compensation from merchants, which is to compensate members for the recharge fee or three times the membership fee.
● In order to prevent platforms or apps from using members to infringe on consumers' legitimate rights and interests, it is necessary to increase illegal costs and increase law enforcement efforts
□ Our reporter Han Dandong
□ Our intern Wang Yitian
After squatting for an hour, Ms. Li from Zhoukou, Henan finally chose to give up. Not long ago, during a big promotion on an e-commerce platform, in order to grab two coupons, as a member, she started at 9:50 in the morning and stayed on her mobile phone. The coupons were constantly refreshed in front of the screen, but until 10:50, she still did not get it.
As an old member, Ms. Li has accumulated more than 20,000 yuan on the platform, and her membership points have reached 10,000 points. The platform's promise of "members can redeem coupons with points" has not been fulfilled by her.
Ms. Li was puzzled. After consulting customer service, she got a reply: clear the phone memory, or uninstall the app and download and log in again.
However, according to the method provided by the customer service, she still "didn't work" after many trials.
"Is the platform's move suspected of false propaganda?" Ms. Li questioned, she believed that her membership rights had been violated.
In reality, there are not many "members" who have the same doubts.
With the popularization of mobile networks, more and more apps have entered people's lives: if you want to shop, you can order high-quality and cheap discounted products through shopping apps; You can enjoy an ad-free model...but these can only be realized after the membership of the relevant App is opened.
As a result, more and more people have a variety of "membership" status, some to enjoy discounts, some to remove ads, some to chat, and some just to use a certain app.
However, a reporter from the "Rules of Law Daily" recently found that the experience of many members is not good. For example, some apps have attached various restrictions to member discounts, and the apps have arbitrarily adjusted the membership terms during the use of members, resulting in damage to user rights and automatic renewals. and alleged false propaganda.
Feel free to adjust membership rules
Set up automatic renewal traps
Mr. Liang from Shenzhen, Guangdong, like Ms. Li, is a member of an e-commerce platform.
Recently, when he was shopping on the platform, he found that his account could not receive coupons. The page showed that the coupons had been received, but his friend's account could receive them at the same time.
The customer service explained that "the page display shall prevail".
In addition to the coupon issue, there will be differences in the membership prices of the platforms mentioned above.
Member Ms. Zhang and her colleagues bought the same mouthwash on the platform not long ago, but the price is different.
After inquiring about the customer service, they learned that it turned out that the time of the last activation of the membership was different, so the membership rules for reference were different, and the discount calculation method was also different.
The reporter checked the rights and interests rules of members of the platform and found that the last one is that the platform "can make changes or adjustments to the rights and interests rules according to the actual situation of the rights and interests. The relevant changes or adjustments will be published on the rights and interests page and will take effect in accordance with the law after the announcement."
The reporter found that many consumers seldom understand and pay attention to the changes in the membership rights and interests rules. Each renewal membership is equivalent to accepting the new membership terms by default. However, when the membership has not expired, the membership rules are often arbitrarily changed by the platform.
Ms. Wang, a resident of Suzhou, Jiangsu, applied for a membership card in a fresh supermarket store in November last year. When applying for the card, the clerk introduced that the store (located in Chengxiang District, Suzhou) can deliver goods to Ms. Wang, who lives in the East District of Jinji Lake.
But it didn't take long for the membership rules to change: the store only delivered within 5 kilometers, and Ms. Wang's house was beyond the delivery range.
A month later, the membership rules changed again: the delivery quota was increased, the minimum delivery quota increased from 299 yuan to 399 yuan, and the delivery fee was 15 yuan.
In addition to changing membership rules at will, some platforms also have the problem that automatic renewals are difficult to cancel.
Ms. Huang, a resident of Pingdingshan, Henan, purchased a membership of a video website at the beginning of this year. The first month is 0 yuan, and the next month is directly deducted by 19.9 yuan.
Later, when Ms. Huang wanted to cancel the membership, she was told by the customer service that it would take 6 months to cancel, and she had to go to the offline business hall to apply.
The experience of Mr. Wu, a resident of Liuzhou, Guangxi, is even more embarrassing.
He tried out a shopping platform for one month membership in 2018. Since he seldom used the platform and the bound bank card was rarely used, Mr. Wu forgot about the membership after a long time.
In February of this year, he suddenly remembered the matter. After checking, he found that the platform had automatically renewed the subscription without my consent. It has been renewed for a total of 5 years. It automatically became a joint card of 178 yuan between the platform and a video website, and it has continued to this day.
Mr. Wu contacted the platform's customer service to request a refund. The other party said that the contract fee in previous years had passed the processing period, and he could only refund the membership fee of the platform and a video website in 2022.
Claim Member Free Chat
In fact, it induces users to recharge
During the interview, the reporter found that many dating and dating apps have also been criticized for membership issues, especially those that induce users to recharge.
Mr. Li, a 30-year-old resident of Handan, Hebei, downloaded a dating app not long ago, and soon many "women" came to chat with him, but since he had not activated his account, Mr. Li could not reply.
So, he spent 39 yuan to activate the account, but just after a few chats, he was reminded that "recharge members can chat freely".
In order to find the person he likes, Mr. Li spent 69 yuan to recharge the membership, but in the end he found that members can only initiate 15 conversations, and they need to continue to recharge to be able to chat indefinitely.
Suspected of being fooled, Mr. Li opened the dialog boxes of the "women" chatting with him one by one, and found that everyone's greetings were similar.
Later, Mr. Li changed his mobile phone number and registered again. The previous routine appeared again, and there was even a "female" who had the same avatar and ID as the person who was chatting before.
At this point, Mr. Li discovered that he may have been induced to recharge by the App.
Subsequently, the reporter downloaded a free chat app and set the gender to male.
The app first pops up pictures of several women, prompting users to strike up a conversation. There will also be women who take the initiative to connect to the video. You can only play for two minutes for free. To continue chatting, you need to recharge chat coins. The "chat" function on the homepage recommends many women's Video avatars, the bottom of each video avatar is marked with how many chat coins are needed for 1 minute. According to the level of female appearance, it ranges from 150 chat coins to 500 chat coins for 1 minute. There is a special recharge prompt for newcomers in the prominent position of the home page, corresponding to 18 yuan respectively. , 38 yuan and 88 yuan recharge.
In the chat area, you need to recharge if you want to chat, you need to recharge to view visitor records, and you need to recharge if you want to continue chatting after sending more than 24 messages.
After that, the reporter downloaded another dating app to experience it.
The reporter signed up for the app and set the gender to male.
As soon as it was opened, many people of the opposite sex with real avatars sent out chat video invitations and took the initiative to initiate conversations.
However, the reporter found that after a certain number of replies, the system would prompt the reporter that there is not enough gold coins to do tasks or buy gold coins. The recharge price of gold coins ranges from tens of yuan to several thousand yuan.
If you want to view "Walking Minds" on the other party's homepage, you need to open a membership, 55 yuan for monthly membership, 138 yuan for quarterly membership, and 368 yuan for annual membership.
In addition, the reporter's investigation also found that in order to induce users to recharge, these heterosexuals with real avatars will take the initiative to post some vulgar content, such as naked photos and pornographic topics.
Liu Deliang, a professor at Beijing Normal University and director of the Asia-Pacific Cyber Law Research Center, said that inducing users to recharge step by step is a consumption scam, and businesses may be fraudulent.
According to the Consumer Rights Protection Law, consumers have the right to demand compensation from merchants, indemnifying the member's recharge fee or three times the member's fee.
Liu Deliang said that these dating software are also suspected of violating contract law. After the user pays the membership fee, the user and the merchant are a contractual agreement and have a legal relationship.
When consumers recharge their money and find that they have been deceived, they can go to court to sue, claiming to cancel the contract, and demand corresponding economic compensation.
The market transaction part of the dating software is supervised by the market supervision department, and the content that is borderline is supervised by the Central Cyberspace Administration. Please refer to Article 15 of the "Internet Information Management Measures": Internet information service providers shall not produce, copy, Publish and disseminate pornographic and other information.
Increase the cost of illegal business
Protect the basic rights and interests of members
"The membership system means that consumers and merchants are a contractual agreement. Membership rules are a system corresponding to standard contract terms. The seller is one party and the buyer is multiple parties. The formulation and interpretation of the terms are explained by the seller." Liu Deliang said .
Liu Deliang pointed out that some merchants violated the principle of good faith and maximized the interests of merchants by restricting the rights and interests of the other party or imposing obligations on consumers, which violated the fairness principle of contract law.
The standard contract should be formulated in strict compliance with the law and cannot be exempted from its obligations.
Some businesses that lack integrity use standard terms to exploit legal loopholes and infringe on the legitimate rights and interests of consumers.
In the view of Liu Junhai, a professor at the Law School of Renmin University of China, merchants change membership rules at will, reflecting that merchants lack the spirit of contract, infringe on consumers' right to know and fair trade, and should be held liable for breach of contract.
If the rights and interests of members are damaged, how can consumers protect their rights?
In this regard, Liu Junhai suggested that consumers can complain to the consumer association, or they can let the market supervision department report it. If the negotiation fails, they can file a lawsuit in the court.
Liu Deliang believes that in order to prevent platforms or apps from using members to infringe on the legitimate rights and interests of consumers, it is necessary to increase the cost of illegality and increase law enforcement.