Research On The Protection Of Consumers' Rights And Interests In Network Group Purchasing

As a new type of online shopping, online group shopping has first flourished in America and then won great market favor after its introduction into China. The main reason is that consumers can enjoy discounts unsurpassed in traditional shopping; in addition, this type of shopping benefits the three parties involved at the same time, so it has gained rapid popularity among the sellers, online buying websites and consumers. Since the setup of the first group shopping website in2010, online group shopping has kept expanding to such an extent that hundreds and thousands of group shopping websites have been established every year, and the scope for online group shopping activities has become larger and larger.However, what is the most attractive in this newly-emerging e-business mode for people is its heavy discount; without full consideration of such risks behind it as immaturity of the online group shopping market, severe homogeneous competition, unsound quality assurance mechanism for products, security holes caused by the absence of the third party payment and default of rules and regulations in the consumer protection law, the rights of many consumers have been infringed without being fully aware of the rights and interests involved in online group shopping. The current protection law of the rights and interests of consumers needs to be reexamined in the area of online group shopping. From the angle of protecting the rights and interests of consumers, this paper mainly analyzes the infringements of several major rights of consumers in online group shopping and the reasons behind. Combining the current Chinese legislative status and drawing lessons from relevant foreign experience in legislation, some pieces of advice are put forward and some serious considerations are made as to the improvement of protecting the rights and interests of consumers in online group shopping, hoping to offer some helpful thoughts on further strengthening the rights and interests of consumers. This paper is consisted of the introduction, the main body and the conclusion.The introduction of this paper mainly presents the subject background, significance, literature review, research methods and innovative points.This paper is divided into five chapters to discuss relevant issues about the protection of the rights and interests of consumers in online group shopping. The first chapter sketches out related concepts of online group shopping, including definitions and legal subjects. The second chapter explains the infringements of several major rights of consumers in online group shopping. The third chapter analyzes the reasons why the rights and interests of consumers are infringed in online group shopping. The fourth chapter mainly introduces relevant measures taken by some developed countries in further protecting the rights and interests of consumers in online group shopping. The fifth chapter puts forward some pieces of advice to establish Chinese market mechanism for online group shopping and strengthen the protection of the rights and interests of consumers in online group shopping, for example, modifying the current legislation, tightening the market access and enhancing the industrial self-regulation, etc.