How many 'holes' still need to be filled in automatic renewal
2024-07-18
Whether it is automatic renewal with "default check" or automatic high price renewal after "free trial", both are suspected of illegal activities, violating the most basic and important principle of integrity in market transactions, and infringing on consumers' right to know and fair trade. Not long ago, the topic of "automatic renewal should remind consumers in a significant way" became a hot search topic, attracting the attention of many consumers. People believe that various software membership services provide various services for daily life and are willing to pay for them. Of course, sometimes after the service expires, people may need to reconsider their needs for the service. However, because they forget to turn off the "automatic renewal" function of membership services, they become "passive" members, which is really not a good experience... This situation is expected to be addressed. Starting from July 1st, the "Implementation Regulations of the Consumer Rights and Interests Protection Law of the People's Republic of China" will come into effect, requiring operators to provide services through automatic extension, automatic renewal, and other methods. Before consumers accept the service and before the automatic extension, automatic renewal, and other dates, they should draw consumers' attention in a significant way. It is reported that in February 2023, CCTV conducted a survey on 50 popular paid software and found that more than 70% of them have automatic renewal functions, and many of them are suspected of deceiving users into automatically renewing. Some people are automatically renewed unintentionally as long as they purchase paid services. Once consumers are caught, it is easy to pay but difficult to refund. On a well-known complaint platform, the number of complaints with "automatic renewal" as the search term has increased from over 30000 in 2020 to over 150000 now. Especially, some online music service providers have obvious "tricks" for automatic renewal, such as pushing seasonal membership cards that show 26 yuan, consumers clicking on them to purchase but are actually charged 45 yuan, and consumers being automatically charged for more than two years without their knowledge. This indicates that there are many "pitfalls" in automatic renewal that urgently need to be regulated. In response to such situations, the Electronic Commerce Law stipulates that operators who bundle goods or services should draw consumers' attention in a prominent manner. The Consumer Rights Protection Law also stipulates that if operators use standard terms in their business activities, they should prominently draw consumers' attention to content that has a significant interest in consumers. For example, the "conspicuous manner" required by both the E-commerce Law and the Consumer Rights Protection Law generally includes the use of bold font, bold font, colored font, etc. In particular, on May 1, 2022, the Measures for the Supervision and Administration of Online Transactions were officially implemented, which stipulate that "if online transaction operators provide services through automatic extension, automatic renewal, etc., they shall draw the attention of consumers in a prominent manner five days before they accept the services and the automatic extension, automatic renewal, etc., and allow consumers to make their own choices. However, some operators of mobile applications choose to use formatted terms for explanation, which is precisely the "least significant" way of reminding consumers, leading them into a trap. For example, on the system interface of some subscribed members, there is a small line of text that says "Automatic renewal upon expiration, can be cancelled at any time", and it has been selected by default. Users won't even notice that line of text if they don't look carefully. By the time it was discovered, it had already been 'checked by default'. As for some apps that automatically renew at a high price after "free trial", it is also an invisible fraudulent behavior. It can be seen that whether it is automatic renewal after "default selection" or automatic high price renewal after "free trial", it violates the most basic and important principle of integrity in market transactions, infringes on consumers' right to know and fair trade, and is suspected of being illegal. The "pit" of automatic renewal needs to be filled in accordance with regulations and laws. In other words, in order to crack down on mandatory automatic renewals, paid software must be locked in the cage of the rule of law and cannot become an "invincible force". Firstly, the enforcement of e-commerce laws should be strengthened to maintain fairness and security in online consumption. At the same time, once consumers encounter consumption traps such as default selection, automatic renewal, free trial, etc., they should actively provide evidence and complaints to relevant departments, or use legal weapons to sue the infringing network service provider in court, and not give up their rights just because of "small losses". Especially, in addition to consumer self-protection, consumer associations at all levels should consider directly filing consumer civil public interest lawsuits to safeguard the basic rights and interests of consumers when dealing with business activities that infringe upon the rights and interests of numerous consumers. (New Society)
Edit：NingChangRun Responsible editor：LiaoXin
Source：Yunnan Daily
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