The Research On Class Action For The Protection Of Chinese Consumer Rights And Interests

Since thirty years of reform and opening up, the market economy system in ourcountry has been established, with the rapid development of commodity economy,the status of the consumer in the economic activities should not be underestimated.With the relevant laws and policies improved in recent years, consumers are still at adisadvantage compared with producers and operators. The problems of consumers inChina become more and more diversified, complicated and grouped. People areseeking the ways to solve this situation. How to attain the judicial remedies for thesmall claims consumers of mass tort cases, for instance, is one of the problemswhich need to be settled urgently. No remedies, no rights, particularly to smallclaims consumers of mass tort cases, consumers often do not get relief or actualdamages. As a consequence, we should definite the class action in detail in theConsumer Protection Law to improve the system of protection of consumers’ rightsand interests in China in order to effectively protect the legitimate rights andinterests of consumers.This paper is developed based on this research background. The thesis isdivided into four parts, the first part is the summary of the consumer group litigation,consumer group litigation problems generally explains the concept andcharacteristics, including consumer group litigation, the relationship betweenconsumer group litigation and economic law, the consumer group litigationsignificance. The second part is the legal status of consumer rights protection inChina and its existing problems and shortcomings, including the establishment of thesystem of public interest litigation and representative litigation system. The third partis the comparison of foreign system of group litigation of consumer protection,mainly analyzes the characteristics and advantages of the American Class Action andGerman Group Action and the enlightenment and reference to our country. The lastpart is to improve consumer rights protection system in China, mainly in the type ofqualification of the subject of action, join or exit mechanism, claims and settlementsystem aspects. The revision of "Consumer Protection Law of People’s Republic of China"focus on enriching the interests of consumers, strengthening the obligations andresponsibilities of proprietor, regulating online shopping and other new forms ofconsumption and forcing the consumer associations to do a better work, to improvethe relevant laws and regulations, to maintain the order of consuming market and toprotect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers①. It will make the consumersin the country a better protection. However, there are only few words about the classaction, structural establishment and litigant requests are not full and accurate, whichlack of operability. Laws can’t change as fast as the development of society, not allproblems can be solved. The thesis has made a domestic and foreign institutionalcomparison by the method of comparative analysis, and trying to seek out theloophole of our legal system and propose the solutions. I wish to provide someacademic resources in order to improve the system of consumer rights protection ofChina, and to contribute my little effort to perfect our socialist legal systemconstruction.