A seminar was held in Beijing on February 25 to discuss the
protection of consumers' rights and interests in China. Chen
Jiamin, associate professor at the Law School of Tsinghua
University, released his team's report on Approaches and
Function of Organizations in the Protection of Consumers' Rights,
which reveals that although consumers' associations have played
their roles in some respects, problems do exist.?
The Law on the Protection of Consumers' Rights and Interests
came into force on January 1, 1994. "Twelve years have passed, but
consumers' disadvantage status is still unchanged, which is mainly
due to the absence of a real independent consumers' organization,"
Chen was quoted as saying by a China Youth Daily report on
February 28.
"Compared with producers and retailers, consumers are at a big
disadvantage," Chen commented. Due to high costs, individual
consumers choose to compromise or give up protecting their rights
and interests.
According to statistics from relatively developed areas in
China, when consumers are involved in a product or service quality
dispute, 50 percent of them choose to keep quiet about it, 25
percent will negotiate with producers or retailers to get
compensation or a replacement product, 20 percent will complain to
the local consumers' associations, but only a small number will use
the law as a way of protecting their legal rights.
"Consumers are normally not an organized group of people. In
contrast, producers and retailers often have abundant resources,"
said Zhou Xiaohong from China Consumers' Association (CCA).
According to the report, consumers' associations at all levels
in China are government-funded groups. They are neither
administrative departments, nor industrial management organizations
nor self-help associations set up by consumers themselves. They
have no rights to impose fines on businesses and cannot recruit,
restrict, give directions or help complainants through Articles of
Association. Therefore they can achieve little when they attempt to
intervene on behalf of consumers especially when dealing with
state-monopolized enterprises.
The team of researchers involved drew up their report after
talking to consumers' associations in seven provinces and
municipalities.
So far there's no single law defining the make-up, function and
direction of consumers' associations. Rooted in administrative
departments of industry and commerce, consumers' associations have
to protect the rights of the biggest group, but they have no
authority over other industrial organizations.
Chen called for collective instead of individual action in order
to protect consumers' rights. He also advocated "preventative
protection" and integrating the protection mechanism into the
market economy regulating system. Consumers' associations should
increase in size and be in a position to challenge a whole industry
rather than single enterprises.?
"Consumers' rights protection organizations, whether an
administrative or social grouping, should be permitted to function
and participate in the state's public service policy-making," said
Chen. "Only in this way will the voices of consumer groups be
heard," he added.
Ding Shihe, secretary-general for CCA, told China Youth
Daily: "The function of consumers' organizations in China
should be strengthened." He called for the establishment of a
coordination mechanism to protect consumers' rights and
interests.
Cao Zhongsheng, head of the consumers' rights protection
division under the Beijing Municipal Administration of Industry and
Commerce, said: "We increased the number of hotlines for complaints
from three to 13 but the lines are still very busy." The industrial
and commercial administrative departments shoulder much
responsibility in the protection of consumers' rights, he
added.
At present, consumers' action to protect their own rights and
interests is more individually based, which cannot effectively deal
with the infringements by producers or service providers. Nor can
individuals react quickly enough to influence policy-making.
Chen suggested that government allow for the establishment of
mass, self-disciplined and reciprocal consumers' organizations and
also the setting-up of non-profit consumers' rights protection
organizations to ease the pressure on government. In addition, he
suggested that communities be encouraged to set up consumer groups
especially in countryside and suburban areas.
Ding predicted that civil organizations would be a strong
addition to the existing consumers' associations.
(Chin.org.cn by Zhang Yunxing, March 7, 2006)