Handle every case with high quality and efficiency to effectively safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of consumers
——The person in charge of the Eighth Procuratorate of the Supreme People's Procuratorate answered reporters' questions on the typical case of "3·15" consumer rights protection procuratorial public interest litigation
In order to thoroughly implement General Secretary Xi Jinping's "four most stringent" requirements for food and drug safety, typical cases should play a leading role in demonstrating and guiding procuratorial organs at all levels to strengthen precise supervision and handle every case with high quality and efficiency.
On the "March 15 International Consumer Rights Protection Day", the Supreme People's Procuratorate released 10 typical cases of consumer rights protection procuratorial public interest litigation.
Regarding the considerations for publishing this batch of typical cases, the main characteristics of the cases, what are the good experiences and practices of public interest litigation in the field of food and drug safety, and the next work plan, the person in charge of the Eighth Procuratorate of the Supreme People's Procuratorate (also known as the Public Interest Litigation Procuratorate) answered reporters asked questions.
1. What are the main considerations for the Supreme People's Procuratorate to release typical public interest litigation cases for consumer rights protection?
Answer:
In 2023, procuratorial organs at all levels across the country thoroughly implemented General Secretary Xi Jinping’s “four strictest” requirements for food and drugs, and filed more than 23,000 public interest litigation cases in the field of food and drug safety, a year-on-year increase of 16.8%.
Among them, there are more than 18,000 cases involving food (including edible agricultural products) safety and nearly 5,000 cases involving drug safety.
There were more than 19,000 administrative public interest litigation cases, more than 14,000 pre-litigation procuratorial suggestions were made, and 37 cases were prosecuted; nearly 5,000 civil public interest litigation cases were filed and handled, more than 2,000 cases were prosecuted, 19 prosecutions were supported, more than 2,000 punitive damages were proposed, and investigations and prosecutions were supervised There were about 330,000 kilograms of counterfeit and shoddy food, and about 8,880 kilograms of fake, substandard and smuggled drugs.
In addition, more than 1,000 public interest litigation cases on consumer rights protection other than food and drug safety were explored and handled.
First, we must consistently implement General Secretary Xi Jinping’s “four strictest” requirements for food and drugs, demonstrating the procuratorial responsibility.
Food is the first priority for the people, and safety of medicines is the first priority. Food and drug safety is related to the health and life safety of the people.
General Secretary Xi Jinping has repeatedly emphasized the need to effectively strengthen food and drug safety supervision and accelerate the establishment of a scientific and complete food and drug safety management system based on the "four strictest" standards.
Procuratorates across the country focus on politics and the rule of law, and always focus on resolving outstanding issues that occur frequently in the field of food and drug safety and that the public pays close attention to and react strongly to. They continue to increase the intensity of case handling and handle each case with high quality and efficiency. cases to ensure people’s food safety and medication safety.
The second is to continue to promote the improvement of quality and efficiency of procuratorial public interest litigation cases in the field of food and drug safety, and to play a leading role in the demonstration of typical cases.
The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China deployed "strengthening the legal supervision of procuratorial organs" and "improving the public interest litigation system", which put forward higher requirements for the high-quality and efficient handling of procuratorial public interest litigation cases and system improvement in various fields.
In recent years, relevant departments have implemented food and drug safety strategies in depth, and the overall food and drug safety situation has continued to improve. However, with the rise of new business formats, new problems have emerged, and public interest litigation prosecutors are facing new challenges in performing their duties.
The Supreme People's Procuratorate released typical cases of public interest litigation for the protection of consumer rights and interests in procuratorial organs, paying close attention to the new issues of concern to the people under the new situation of food and drug safety, and comprehensively using administrative public interest litigation, civil public interest litigation, supporting prosecution and other methods to perform duties, Provide scalable and replicable experience for procuratorial organs across the country on how to handle new business formats and new types of cases with high quality and efficiency.
2. What are the main characteristics of the typical cases of consumer rights protection procuratorial public interest litigation released this time?
Answer:
The Supreme People's Procuratorate released 10 typical cases of public interest litigation for consumer rights protection in procuratorial organs, including 7 administrative public interest litigation cases and 3 civil public interest litigation and support prosecution cases.
The main features of this batch of cases are:
The first is to actively respond to social concerns and focus on solving food and drug safety issues that are of high concern to consumers and have a negative impact.
Food and drug safety involves the basic interests of the people. The procuratorial organs pay close attention to hot issues of food and drug safety, aiming to solve food and drug safety issues that the people pay close attention to and have strong reactions to.
For example, the Procuratorate of Wenchang City, Hainan Province, in response to the phenomenon of "human drugs for veterinary use" and the abuse of veterinary drugs in the aquaculture field, has issued pre-litigation inspection recommendations to urge administrative agencies to strengthen supervision, raise farmers' awareness of safe drug use, and stop "human drugs for veterinary use" and veterinary drugs. Abuse, eliminate potential safety hazards of aquatic products, and protect the people's "safety on the tip of the tongue"; the Procuratorate of Congtai District, Handan City, Hebei Province, in response to the illegal behavior of producing and selling animal blood products illegally added with industrial formaldehyde, recommended before the lawsuit expires that the If the agency neither responds in writing nor performs its duties, a lawsuit will be used to urge the administrative agency to perform its duties in accordance with the law, demonstrating the rigidity of supervision.
The second is to keep a close eye on new food and drug safety issues emerging in new business formats and promote the establishment of new methods, new rules, and new mechanisms for industry supervision.
Procuratorates at all levels keep a close eye on the hot spots of social and economic development, constantly update their case handling concepts and innovate case handling methods, proactively perform their duties, and promote the solution of new problems in new business formats.
For example, the Beijing Railway Transportation Procuratorate focuses on the governance of new Internet marketing formats. In response to illegal and illegal behaviors in the Internet marketing models of catering stores such as "Store Exploration Master" and "Expert Experience" on short video platforms, paid store exploration videos infringe upon the legitimate rights and interests of consumers, according to law Administrative agencies are urged to strengthen supervision of MCN agencies, standardize the release of paid store visit video advertisements, effectively protect consumers’ right to know, and maintain the safety of online food consumption; the Xixiu District Procuratorate of Anshun City, Guizhou Province targets cross-border purchasing of diet pills containing prohibited substances. The behavior of implementing multi-level distribution through network development and offline filing of criminal incidental civil public interest litigation was filed in accordance with the law, and a request for punitive damages was filed.
The third is to firmly grasp the direction of handling cases that are no small matter in people's livelihood, and strive to solve the troubles, worries and concerns around the people.
There is no trivial matter in people's livelihood, and the branches and leaves are always related to feelings.
People's livelihood is one of the most important social and public interests, especially the visible, tangible, and perceptible troubles, worries, and worries about food and drug safety around the people. They are "major issues" that the prosecutor's public interest litigation needs to focus on solving.
For example, the Procuratorate of Ninghai County, Zhejiang Province, in response to the illegal use of fresh food lamps by merchants in farmers' markets to mislead consumers, urged administrative agencies to promote fresh food lamp rectification cases as a special activity throughout the city. The city has replaced more than 14,000 fresh food beauty lamps, promoting The farmer's market operates in a standardized manner; the Procuratorate of Longyan City, Fujian Province has built a legal supervision model through big data retrieval to comprehensively review the prominent problems exposed in the medical and lifestyle beauty industries such as false propaganda, unlicensed operations, and illegal use of beauty drugs and medical devices. Hidden risks in medical beauty safety management, promote the implementation of the main responsibilities of beauty industry operators and third-party online trading platforms, and effectively protect consumers’ medical beauty safety needs; the Xiangshan District Procuratorate of Guilin City, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region violated the law against imported goods supermarket chains for treating overseas drugs as ordinary commodities We urge the administrative agencies to bring the sales behavior into the scope of supervision and carry out special rectification on a point-by-point basis.
The fourth is to comprehensively use a variety of duty performance methods to promote collaborative governance of consumer rights protection.
The protection of consumer rights and interests in food and drug safety is not a matter for public interest litigation procuratorial departments to "fight alone". Procuratorates at all levels should strengthen the coordinated performance of the "four major procuratorial organs", promote collaboration and co-governance with administrative agencies and the protection of social forces, and unite all parties. All parties work together to protect public interests.
For example, the Procuratorate of Nanshan District, Shenzhen City, Guangdong Province has strengthened the comprehensive performance of various prosecutorial functions such as criminal, intellectual property, and public interest litigation, and initiated criminal offenses against the illegal and criminal behavior of selling infant feeding bottles and pacifiers that are knowingly counterfeit registered trademarks and do not meet national food safety standards. Attached civil public interest litigation to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of consumers and the health of minors; the Procuratorate of Gushi County, Xinyang City, Henan Province has given full play to its public interest litigation functions in response to issues such as irregular vaccination work reflected in counterfeit cervical cancer vaccines, and through pre-litigation The procuratorial office recommended urging relevant functional departments to perform their duties in accordance with the law, promote industry system governance, and effectively protect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers; the First Branch of the Chongqing Municipal People's Procuratorate responded to a car sales company's behavior of setting unfair format contract terms, and supported the city's consumer rights protection in accordance with the law The committee initiated civil public interest litigation and promoted the formation of joint efforts with administrative departments and public welfare organizations to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of consumers.
3. In the next step, what measures will the procuratorate take to promote the deepening and solidification of public interest litigation in the field of food and drug safety?
Answer:
In 2024, we will adhere to the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, thoroughly implement Xi Jinping Thought on the Rule of Law, consciously serve the overall situation, serve the people's justice, and take responsibility for the rule of law, handle every case with high quality and efficiency, and effectively promote The high-quality development of public interest litigation in the field of food and drug safety contributes prosecutorial power to food and drug safety and the protection of consumer rights and interests.
The first is to assist social governance with high-quality and efficient case handling.
In order to effectively protect the health and safety of the people and promote the high-quality and efficient handling of cases in the fields of food, medicine, and agricultural products, from February to December 2024, the Supreme People's Procuratorate deployed procuratorial organs across the country to carry out a special operation to "protect people's livelihood", focusing on community group purchases, Special supervision will be carried out on food safety issues related to new business formats such as online marketing and live streaming.
Focusing on the special action of "Protecting People's Livelihoods", the Supreme People's Procuratorate has deployed a series of key tasks in the field of food and drug safety, including supervising the standardized development of the prepared vegetable industry; supervising and rectifying the chaotic online live broadcast marketing of food and drugs; supervising and rectifying the problem of excessive pesticides, veterinary drugs, and heavy metal residues in edible agricultural products ; Supervise the rectification of food adulteration and excessive use of food additives beyond the scope and limit; urge the standardized development of Internet diagnosis and treatment; urge the rectification of drug abuse; urge the rectification of excessive medical problems and other food and drug safety issues that consumers pay close attention to.
The Supreme People's Procuratorate and provincial procuratorates will continue to increase the intensity of self-handling cases, focusing on public welfare damage issues in the field of food and drug safety that are strongly reflected by the people and have great social impact, integrate superior resources, and play a leading role in demonstration.
Procuratorial organs at all levels will effectively perform their duties and handle cases to solve the urgent needs and worries of the people, make up for the shortcomings and loopholes in administrative supervision, and help modernize national governance.
The second is to improve the system and mechanism through research and supervision.
Through research and guidance, explore and solve key and difficult issues in the fields of food safety, agricultural product quality and safety, and drug safety; timely summarize and promote excellent experiences and practices in various places, and give full play to the radiating effect of advanced areas; strengthen supervision and guidance in places where the quality and efficiency of case handling are obviously weak , guidance and typical case demonstration guidance.
On the basis of full investigation and research, the Supreme People's Procuratorate and the Supreme People's Court will jointly issue guidance on several issues concerning the application of punitive damages in civil public interest litigation cases in the field of food and drug safety, and make decisions on relevant issues such as the scope, conditions, and compensation standards of punitive damages in public interest litigation cases. Clear regulations provide clear basis and guidance for handling cases.
The third is to use technology to support smooth collaboration and manage synergy.
Guide all localities to strengthen big data strategic thinking, focus on the key supervision areas of public interest litigation and prosecution in the field of food and drug safety, strengthen law enforcement and judicial information sharing, strengthen data analysis, judgment and application, deeply integrate digital analysis technology with public interest litigation case handling, and use digital technology to support improvements Quality and efficiency of case handling.
Adhere to the "one game of chess" thinking, continue to refine internal linkages, deepen external collaboration, and weave a dense network of food and drug safety law enforcement and judicial protection.
Strengthen collaboration with administrative agencies, consumer rights protection organizations, and social inspection and testing centers to provide technical service support such as forensic investigation, testing, identification, and evaluation for procuratorial organs in handling cases, and enhance the credibility and professionalism of public interest litigation procuratorial work.
(Supreme Procuratorate website)