Research On Administrative Mediation In Consumer Protection

Administrative mediation as a way of resolving disputes outside of litigation, with a flexible, efficient and so on. With the publicity of the concept of harmony, administrative mediation becomes one of the important methods used by the administrative departments for solving contradictions and disputes. Administrative mediation in customer protection is an important part of what the industrial and commercial administrative departments do to guide and protect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers in the activities of market economy. As work of right protection and a trust building project, it benefits people’s livelihood, serves the scientific development and enjoys great popularity with consumers.In this paper, from the perspective of the new public service theory, the author reviews the research documentation of scholars at home and abroad on the administrative mediation in consumer protection and summarizes the course of administrative mediation in consumer protection in China by adopting the research approaches of documentation research, case study and comparative study. A case study is conducted by taking Quanzhou as the subject. It summarizes the current condition of administrative mediation in consumer protection in Quanzhou. Through the study, problems are found in the administrative mediation in consumer protection, including the lack of enforcement power in administrative mediation, the ambiguous responsibility assignment among functional government departments, difficulty in the supervision and regulation of the public service industry and endless malicious complaints and so on. In addition, the causes of these problems are also analyzed.To solve these problems, based on the advanced experience on consumer protection from foreign developed countries, further research on countermeasures and suggestions are provided on improving the administrative mediation in protecting consumers’ rights and interests in China. The basic principles for consumer protection are established and concrete measures are presented for improving the administrative mediation in consumer protection, namely, developing the relevant laws and regulations, building healthy departmental interaction mechanisms, establishing multiple parties participating platforms and creating diversified mediation mechanisms and so on. It is hoped that the administrative mediation of the industrial and commercial departments can play a better role in the protection of consumers’ legitimate rights and interests and promoting the harmonious development of the society.