The Legal Issues Of User Registration Agreement Of P2P Online Lending

As the integrated innovation of traditional debit and credit transaction and the internet technology, the peer to peer lending(Hereinafter referred to as ‘P2P’) is not different from the traditional debit and credit relationship. For the P2 P is on-line instead of off-line, the model of the lending is changing from ‘acquaintance as media’ to ‘open trading’. The change of transaction model lead to lots of issue not regulated by current legal system. In order to comply with the current legal system, not to ring the legal alarm, most P2 P platforms have modified mature P2 P transaction model. Thus there appears four transaction models in China, that is ‘online pure unsecured’ model, ‘online secured’ model, ‘mainly on online while offline subsidiary’ model and ‘mainly on offline while online subsidiary’ model. After analyzing the mentioned four kinds of transaction model, it turns out that no matter what kind of model, the legal relationship between P2 P platform and the customer exists. This relationship results from the digital standard form contract(user registration protocol) provided by the P2 P platform.As the core document which defines the legal rights and obligations of the platform and the customers, user registration protocol needs the legal spotlight. This article is going to analyze these issues, make the transaction of P2 P lending clear, thus to figure out the legal framework of the P2 P lending and the relevant legal issues. Meanwhile the author will give the legal suggestions to the risk control of P2 P platform, the optimization of the user registration protocol and the regulation on this industry.This article will be divided into five parts.In part 1, the article focus on the concept of P2 P lending, the transaction model and its corresponding platform, then comes to the conclusion: the difference between traditional debit and credit transaction and P2 P lending is not merely the difference between offline and online, mainly in the establishment of the legal relationship. Besides sketch of the P2 P transaction model will be concluded in this part, which illustrates the trading structure of the P2 P and the corresponding legal relationship.In part 2, the article is to illustrate the concept of user registration protocol through the study of user registration protocol. Then the article will analyze the two legal characters of the protocol: digital standard contract and brokerage contract. At last, through the case analysis, the author will point out that as the core legal instrument of the P2 P lending, user registration protocol is very important in practice.In part 3, the article is going to study the party of the user registration protocol. As to the P2 P lending operators, the focus will be on their qualification, guarantee to the platform and operation. As to the customers, the focus will be on their qualification and protection they received. Though the above study, we will point out the risk of the operator, then some corresponding solution will be given.In part 4, it is the analyze of the terms of the protocol. Firstly, four types of terms will be summarized and will be illustrated one by one. Secondly, the article will put concentration on the content of the terms and the focus will be on the privacy and exceptions terms. As to exceptions, the author will conclude the legal risk that the operator should pay attention. As to the privacy term, the article will point out the contradiction of the parties and the importance of the disclosure. Then we will know the specific conditions for disclosure will solve the contradiction. Finally, after categorize the clauses and analyzing the content of specific terms, the article will study the rights and obligations of the parties under the protocol, then point out the unbalance of the rights and obligations and the reason. The guideline for operators to reply to the avoidance of standard terms will be given.In part 5, the article is going to give the suggestions on the improvement of user registration protocol, legal system and regulation.