Reporting illegal acts can be ＂anonymous＂ from next year, and malicious complaints and claims will not be accepted.
On January 1st next year, the Interim Measures for Handling Complaints and Reports in Market Supervision and Management newly issued by the State Administration of Market Supervision will be formally implemented. In response to a series of issues that consumers are concerned about, the relevant person in charge of the Network Supervision Department of the General Administration of Market Supervision made an interpretation yesterday (December 10). The reporter noted that the "Measures" allow anonymous reporting and encourage insiders of operators to report according to law; At the same time, once again, complaints about purchasing or using goods or receiving services that are not necessary for daily consumption will not be accepted. This also means that malicious complaints and reports in the name of "counterfeiting" will not be supported.
Allow anonymous reporting and strengthen the protection of informants.
The public may have concerns when reporting illegal acts. The person in charge said that the legitimate rights and interests of informants should be fully protected. Therefore, in encouraging and supporting reporting, the Measures:
One is to allow anonymous reporting. As long as it can provide specific clues about the suspected illegal act and is responsible for the authenticity of the reported content, the whistleblower may not provide his name, address and contact information. If anonymous informants apply for reporting rewards, they should also be handled in accordance with special regulations.
The second is to encourage the insiders of operators to report the acts of operators suspected of violating market supervision laws, regulations and rules according to law.
The third is to strengthen the protection of whistleblowers. It is stipulated that the market supervision department shall keep confidential the information of the whistleblower, and shall not disclose the personal information of the whistleblower and the handling of the report to the whistleblower or any person unrelated to the handling of the report.
Malicious complaints about professional claims will not be accepted.
The "Measures" clarify that six kinds of complaints will not be accepted: they are not the responsibility of the market supervision department, or the agency does not have the handling authority; The court, arbitration institution, market supervision department or other administrative organs, consumer associations or other mediation organizations established according to law have accepted or handled it; Not buying or using goods or receiving services for the needs of daily consumption, or failing to prove that there is a dispute between consumers and the respondent; The complainant knows or should know that his rights and interests have been infringed by the respondent for more than three years; Failing to provide legal complaint materials; Other statutory circumstances.
These provisions are regarded as providing a basis for regulating malicious complaints and claims, and closing the door of complaints of so-called professional claimants for profit. The person in charge of the General Administration of Market Supervision said that such a regulation is to serve the convenience of the people, do "subtraction" as much as possible for cases that are not accepted, implement "negative list management", and curb the abuse of the system.
An industry observation report released by the Internet Law Conference in 2019 pointed out that, unlike professional counterfeiting, "professional claims" are often extorted in the name of counterfeiting. The general path is "one buy, two talk, three report, four review and five lawsuit". At present, "professional claims" are showing the trend of gangs and industrialization, which has affected businesses, platforms, regulatory departments, judicial departments and other parties, destroyed the market business environment, and encroached on the judicial law enforcement resources of consumers’ legitimate rights protection.
Complaints about food and drugs can be mediated by the market supervision department.
"In the field of market supervision, consumers who meet the needs of life can request mediation when they encounter consumer disputes." The person in charge of the General Administration of Market Supervision said that the regulations make it clear that administrative mediation can be applied to all consumer rights disputes in the field of market supervision, including fair competition, food, medicine, consumer goods, special equipment, measurement, certification, testing, price and intellectual property rights.
"In the process of legislation, there was a dispute over whether administrative mediation should be applied to food and drugs," the person in charge said. We believe that the Consumer Protection Law stipulates that complaining to the government is to solve civil disputes, and does not distinguish specific categories of goods and services. Only administrative mediation can achieve this goal. The Food Safety Law not only clarifies the administrative responsibilities of operators, but also stipulates civil responsibilities such as ten times compensation. If we only investigate and deal with illegal acts and ignore civil demands, the civil responsibilities of operators will be frustrated and the tilt protection for consumers will be weakened under the circumstance of high judicial cost.
The person in charge stressed that in addition to food and medicine, many market supervision objects such as automobiles, children’s toys, articles for the elderly, household appliances, furniture, elevators, etc. are directly related to people’s lives and health, and consumers whose personal safety has been violated need multi-channel and diversified rights relief. Therefore, the "Measures" clarify that mediation of disputes over consumers’ rights and interests does not exempt operators from other legal responsibilities that should be borne according to law, and opposes the phenomenon of "substituting punishment with adjustment".
At the same time, considering the particularity and complexity of verification, inspection, testing and appraisal, in order to improve the efficiency of the whole process and avoid consumers’ excessive involvement in energy and repeated work, the Measures stipulate that both parties can’t reach an agreement on the entrusted technical institutions or expenses to terminate mediation and guide consumers to file civil lawsuits.
The national 12315 platform has been launched and can be logged in through WeChat Alipay.
After the promulgation of the Measures, how should the public correctly complain and report? It is understood that in order to standardize the complaint reporting channels and ensure timely and efficient disposal, the Measures stipulate that the public needs to submit complaints and reports through the Internet, telephone, fax, mailing address, window and other channels announced by the market supervision department.
According to the person in charge of the General Administration of Market Supervision, at present, the complaint hotline is unified to 12315, and the national 12315 platform has been put into operation, and supports various convenient login methods such as webpage, APP, WeChat, Alipay and Baidu, which can be associated with the national corporate library, and consumers can submit complaints and reports to any enterprise online anytime and anywhere, and directly receive and feedback online from the local market supervision department. In the first half of 2019, local market supervision departments handled 1.085 million consumer complaints and reports through the platform, which became a new "highway" and "trunk line" for consumers.
Informants can reflect the inaction of the regulatory authorities.
After receiving the complaint, what should the regulatory authorities do if they do not handle it in time? The "Measures" stipulate that complaints shall be handled by the county-level market supervision department of the respondent’s actual business place or domicile, complaints against e-commerce platforms shall be handled by the county-level market supervision department of its domicile, and complaints against operators in the platform shall be handled by the county-level market supervision department of its actual business place or domicile of platform operators, and consumers can choose one according to their own convenience.
At the same time, starting from the needs of improving administrative efficiency, preventing buck passing, reducing idle procedures, etc., the Measures stipulate that if the market supervision department that receives the report does not have jurisdiction, it shall inform the informant to directly submit it to the market supervision department that has jurisdiction. If the market supervision department finds that the case investigated is not under its jurisdiction, it shall transfer the case to the market supervision department with jurisdiction. If the whistleblower thinks that the market supervision department does not act, he can provide relief and supervision through administrative reconsideration, administrative litigation and other procedures.
(The original title is "From next year, reporting violations can be" anonymous "and malicious complaints and claims will not be accepted")
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