The Network Shopping Consumer Right Protection Research

The right to information is a fundamental and significant right of the customers.Nowadays, the Internet transactions, namely the so-called online shopping, have become apart of people’s daily life. However, the Internet transactions are not like the way people do inthe real life. The features of the Internet, such as virtual and technological features, make thesellers control the transactions, which directly put the buyers in a vulnerable position. As theInternet transactions play a more and more important role in the social economy, the tradingquota appears to be increasing gradually. Therefore, how to fully protect the right toinformation of the customers becomes a topic that draws many legal researchers’ attention.This article is constituted of four chapters. The first chapter is an introduction of thedefinition, features and the effect of protection of the right to information and the right toinformation in online shopping. The author further analyzes the right to information from theperspective of the definition, character, feature and the effect of protection, and draws theconclusion that is compared with the right to information of traditional customers, the right toinformation in online shopping is more broad in content and easier to be infringed, becausethe customers are acting the rights to information in a different way when shopping online,and similarly, the sellers are not actively performing their obligations to disclose thenecessary information.The second chapter is an introduction and analysis of the legal protection for the right toinformation in online shopping in foreign countries. From the detailed analysis of the lawsconcerned the Internet transactions from the United States, Australia, Japan and the EuropeUnion, this chapter demonstrates the protection for the right to information in foreigncountries and what and why we could learn from.The third chapter is an analysis of the current situation of the protection to thecustomers’ right to information in China through real cases and the problems herebydiscovered. Although a few provisions in the Law of the PRC on the Protection of the Rightsand Interests of Consumers concerns the rights of customers in online shopping, we have nocomplete and separate laws concerning Internet transactions, except for a few localregulations. Through comparing and analyzing relative laws and the existing problems relative to the protection of the customers in online shopping, the chapter provides legalfoundations for the measures illustrated in chapter four.The forth chapter is the measures to improve the protection to the right to information ofcustomers in online shopping and is the most significant part throughout this article. Throughthe analysis in chapter three, the laws are not adequately drafted and will not provide fullyprotections for the customers’ right to information. Therefore, focusing on some problems inthe laws and regulations, the article raises suggestions of how to enhance the right toinformation in online shopping, mainly from the perspective of legislative, such as tostrengthen the sellers’ obligation to disclose information, to set up the system of reputationranking, to implement the standard dispute resolutions for online shopping, etc.