Since then, Ma has been busy calling the market regulator, the local consumer rights protection association and the police. But consumer protection has not matched the country’s rapid economic advance, despite the 2013 revision of its 1994 Consumer Protection Law, and passing 2018’s Electronic Commerce Law, said Janet Hui Xue, a researcher with Oxford University’s Consumer Rights Beyond Boundaries programme. “China has shown remarkable improvement [in consumer rights protection] over the past decade,” she said. Consumer rights protection in mainland China used to be uniformly poor as the country largely tolerated counterfeit and substandard goods during its economic catch-up of past decades. In sectors such as online education, practices including false advertising, unlicensed staff and collecting non-refundable advance payments are rampant.

Source: The Star April 06, 2021 06:33 UTC