2024.0409

Number of words in this article:1068, reading time is about 2 minutes

introduction：《条例》为预付式消费设立了专门罚则，明确由各有关行政部门进行处罚；对于预收费用后卷款跑路的，还将依法列入严重违法失信名单。

** Author| ** First Finance Zhu Yanran

In recent years, all kinds of chaos of prepaid consumption has become an annoyance for ordinary people and a blocking point for consumption at ease. As the first supporting administrative regulation of the Consumer Rights and interests Protection Law, the regulations on the implementation of the Consumer Rights and interests Protection Law of the people's Republic of China (hereinafter referred to as the regulations) came into force on July 1. The regulations have targeted norms on such issues as improving the supervision of new business type, such as improving live streaming with goods, governing big data's "killing ripe", and strengthening prepaid consumer protection, which are strongly reflected by consumers. On April 9, the Information Office of the State Council held a regular briefing on the State Council's policy. Kuang Xu, director of the Law Enforcement Inspection Bureau of the General Administration of Market Supervision, said in response to a question from China Business News that regulating prepaid consumption is a focus of the legislation of the regulations. Prepaid consumption is a business model, involving a variety of industries, the relevant administrative departments should strengthen daily supervision in their respective fields, investigate and deal with illegal acts, and deal with consumer complaints. The regulations set up special penalties for prepaid consumption, which are clearly punished by the relevant administrative departments; those who run away after collecting fees in advance will also be included in the list of serious violations of laws and trustworthiness in accordance with the law. He said that the regulations have further strengthened the obligations of operators from three aspects.:The first is the obligation to establish a "written contract". Business operators shall conclude written contracts with consumers, stipulating the specific contents, prices or fees of commodities or services, methods of refund of advance payments, liability for breach of contract, etc., and strengthen restrictions on business operators to abide by their commitments in the form of written contracts, reduce the difficulty of proof when safeguarding consumers' rights. The second is to strengthen the obligation of "performing in accordance with the contract". Business operators shall provide commodities or services in accordance with the agreement with consumers, and shall not lower the quality of commodities or services or increase prices arbitrarily. If the business operator fails to provide it in accordance with the agreement, it shall perform the agreement or refund the advance payment in accordance with the requirements of the consumer. In view of the situation of operators reducing quality, cutting corners and shrinking services, the regulations give consumers the right to terminate contracts for the first time, and operators not only have to refund the balance of advance payments, but also according to the performance of the contract and the situation of breach of contract. The third is to make clear the obligation of "informing in the event". Business operators shall stop collecting advance payments in case of major business risks; if business operators decide to suspend business or relocate service places, they shall inform consumers in advance, continue to perform their obligations or refund the balance of advance payments that have not been consumed. Even if the operator has no subjective fault, it will lead to the non-performance of the contract or significantly increase the cost of consumer performance. The regulations also give consumers the right to terminate the contract. In addition, although the deposit is a guarantee rather than an advance payment, it also has the form and risk of "advance payment", and it is also easy to cause refund disputes, so this time the regulations have also made corresponding provisions on the deposit, requiring operators to agree with consumers in advance on the way, procedure and time limit for returning the deposit, and shall not set unreasonable conditions for the return of the deposit, and those who meet the conditions should be returned in a timely manner. When the consumer breaches the contract, the operator should deduct the deposit on the basis of the actual loss, rather than simply "having nothing". **