The Research About Welfare Lawsuits For Chinese Consumers

The information asymmetry,inequality,and high cost of safeguarding legitimate rights and interests often put consumers in a vulnerable position.Therefore,China has formulated Law of the PRC on the Protection of the Rights and Interests of Consumers to better protect consumers,maintain fair play in the market,and promote sound development of the market-oriented economy.In recent years,consumption-driven economic development has been strengthening,and even exceeding investments and exports to contribute more than 60% to China's economic growth rate.Undoubtedly,China has entered an important period with growing consumption demands.In response to the flourishing consumption-driven economy,China should optimize its consumption environment,safeguard legitimate rights and interests of consumers,improve consumer confidence,and further tap the potential of consumption.However,along with rapid development of China's economy,the number of consumer complaints and group lawsuits,such as relating to falsified delivery of online shopping,inconsistency between delivered products and practical situations,bankruptcy of operators after consumers handle service cards,and failure of uninstalling software equipped with mobile phones,is on the increase.The consumption tort cases are usually characterized by a large number of victims,small individual losses,huge profits of operators,unwillingness or failure of victims to safeguard their legitimate rights and interests.To leave these illegal operation behaviors aside not only damages legitimate rights and interests of consumers,but also destroys China's consumption environment and economic order.Since the traditional legal proceedings cannot meet the demands of protecting the group rights and interests,establishment of the public welfare lawsuit services for consumers has been an approach adopted by many countries to cope with the above problem.Article 55 of Civil Procedure Law of the PRC revised in 2012 introduces the system of the public welfare lawsuit.This marks the beginning of the public welfare lawsuit in China.Article 47 of Law of the PRC on the Protection of Rights and Interests of Consumers stipulates the civil public welfare lawsuit of consumers.However,both laws just clarify the existing of the system,and its applications are often in dispute.Methods for Pilot Work of People's Procuratorate on Filing Public Welfare Lawsuits issued in 2015 authorizes people's procuratorate to file public welfare lawsuits in the field of food and drug safety.Interpretations of the Supreme People Court about Several Problems Concerning Applicable Laws for Civil Public Welfare Lawsuits issued in 2016 stipulates about the system of the public welfare lawsuit in great details,including plaintiff qualifications,types of social public interests being damaged,types of claims,and cost sharing.However,there has not yet been an agreement about plaintiff qualifications,types of claims and some major legal proceedings,and many loopholes are there to be filled.This paper combines case analysis and legislation of consumer public welfare lawsuits abroad to discuss three research questions in consumers' public welfare lawsuits,namely plaintiff qualifications,types of claims and relevant legal proceedings and explore feasible methods to improve public welfare lawsuits for Chinese consumers.It is hoped that research findings of this paper can contribute to solution of group disputes in the consumption field,protect legitimate rights and interests of Chinese consumers,and provide legal support and guarantee for the consumption environment.Based on the above analysis and discussion,the author comes to the conclusion that,apart from the consumers' association and the people's procuratorate,citizens should also be qualified as individual plaintiffs.As to types of claims,the author thinks that to raise prohibitory injunction is far from being enough.Instead,efforts should be made to explore feasible methods for lawsuits asking for compensation for damages.The author suggests that China should learn from France and Brazil to first establish the system of lawsuits asking for compensation for damages and protecting collective interests.Andestabilishingtwostagetrail In terms of legal proceedings,it is necessary for China to build the standard prepositional procedure and allow reconciliation in consumer-related public welfare lawsuits.As to sharing of litigation fees,consumer-related public welfare lawsuits should be separated from the general civil legal proceedings.The author hopes that this research can contribute to continuous improvement of the system of consumer-related public welfare lawsuits so to more effectively protect rights and interests of consumers and guarantee orderly development of enterprises.