An Empirical Study On Consumer Public Interest Litigation In China

For Chinese consumers,the long-term face is a situation of high cost of safeguarding rights and asymmetric information.Compared with operators,consumers are in a weak position.Although China has enacted the Consumer Rights and Interests Protection Law,which balances the interests of both sides and protects the legitimate rights and interests of the disadvantaged,in order to maintain the fairness of market competition and promote the development of market economy,it is still necessary to strengthen the protection of consumers' rights and interests.With the improvement of the economic environment,the role of consumption-driven effect in promoting economic development is gradually emerging,which also shows that China's current economic growth largely depends on consumption-driven.With the rapid development of economy,the protection of consumers' rights and interests has become increasingly prominent.Especially after the rise of online shopping,there are many incidents,such as false delivery of goods by means of network platform,bankruptcy of operators after consumers pay advance payment,compulsory installation of software on mobile terminals and so on,which seriously infringe the legitimate rights and interests of consumers.At present,cases of infringement on the legitimate rights and interests of consumers generally have the following characteristics: the huge benefits of operators,the high cost of individual rights protection of consumers,the lack of motivation for consumers to file lawsuits,and so on.Such a situation will lead to continuous infringement of consumers' rights and interests,while the illegal business practices of operators can not be punished,and pose a challenge to the healthy development of economic order.As the traditional civil litigation can no longer meet the needs of protecting the interests of consumer groups,the establishment of consumer public interest litigation system suited to national conditions has become an inevitable choice in China.As the beginning of China's public interest litigation system,China's Civil Procedure Law has added the public interest litigation system,followed by the Consumer Rights Protection Law,which also stipulates the consumer's civil public interest litigation system.However,the provisions of the above-mentioned law on consumer public interest litigation are mainly framework.There are still some differences on how to operate the consumer public interest litigation system in judicial practice.In order to eliminate differences,in 2015 the Supreme People's Procuratorate promulgated "Measures for the Implementation of the Pilot Work of People's Procuratorate in Initiating Public Interest Litigation".In 2016,the Supreme People's Court promulgated "Explanations of the Supreme People's Court on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Law in the Trial of Consumer Civil Public Interest Litigation".The above judicial interpretation authorized the Procuratorate to initiate public The scope of public interests,types of claims and cost sharing related to consumer public interest litigation are also specified.However,up to now,the types of plaintiffs eligible for prosecution,the right to claim damages and some important procedural issues are still not clear enough.Firstly,this paper analyses the typical cases of consumer public interest litigation in China,then combs the legislative status and judicial practice of consumer public interest litigation in China,and sums up the shortcomings of consumer public interest litigation system in China.In view of the shortcomings,this paper tries to put forward some reasonable suggestions to improve the consumer public interest litigation system in China: first,to expand the plaintiff's main qualification,while establishing a mechanism to prevent indiscriminate litigation;second,to set up necessary pre-litigation procedures;third,to add damages litigation.Specifically,this paper uses case analysis method to analyze the plaintiff's qualification of prosecution,the types of claims and the problems of litigation procedure,and puts forward some countermeasures and suggestions to improve the consumer public interest litigation system in China,hoping to help solve the problems existing in the consumer public interest litigation system,create a legal atmosphere to protect consumers and provide consumers with it.More legal support to better protect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers.This paper holds that in consumer public interest litigation,besides procuratorates and consumer associations,citizens should also be granted individual plaintiff qualifications;the types of consumer public interest litigation claims should not be limited to omission litigation,but should also try to establish damages litigation.In this regard,we can learn from the experience of Germany and the United States,and endow consumer associations with this right,which should be established in China.Establishment of damages litigation brought by consumer associations;in terms of litigation procedures,we can try to set up pre-litigation procedures to promote pre-litigation reconciliation in consumer public interest litigation.By constantly improving the consumer public interest litigation system,to achieve the full protection of the legitimate rights and interests of consumers,making the socialist market economy more standardized and orderly development.