Empirical Investigation And System Perfecting Of Consumer Civil Public Interest Litigation In China

The degree of diversification and maturity of consumer rights protection system has become an important criterion to judge whether a country's economy is civilized and whether the market economy is developed.Since entering the 21st century,the system of consumer civil public interest litigation has gradually become an important means of consumer rights protection,which is widely used in most countries in the world.The necessity of constructing consumer civil public interest litigation system lies in protecting consumer rights and interests,promoting healthy economic growth,saving litigation resources,improving litigation efficiency,making up for insufficient market supervision,and reducing the pressure of administrative departments.The purpose of establishing the system of consumer civil public interest litigation is to protect the social public interest in the field of consumption.Consumer civil public interest litigation refers to the civil litigation activities initiated by organs,social organizations,individuals and other subjects authorized by law to protect the rights and interests of consumers and to the operators of social public interests,such as the legitimate rights and interests of many and not specific consumers.Since the introduction of the system of consumer civil public interest litigation in the new Civil Procedure Law in 2012 for the first time,although laws,regulations and judicial interpretation are gradually improving and implementing,most of the provisions are more principled,vague,not strong practical operation,reflected in judicial practice,consumer civil public The volume of benefit litigation is minimal.There are still shortcomings in the provisions of consumer civil public interest litigation,although the main body of consumer civil public interest litigation has been legally or authorized to the provincial level and procuratorial organs,but the judicial status quo is insufficient vitality,the number of cases is scarce;in the litigation request,there is no specific provisions for damages,especially punitive damages need to be clearly defined by law,but practice has been a step ahead,in 2018 Guangdong Provincial Consumer Council in Guangdong "fake salt" series of public interest litigation case has successfully won punitive damages.In terms of incentive system,the high litigation cost is the great resistance to put forward the consumer civil public interest lawsuit,Government support alone is not enough.In the case of pre-procedures,the existing provisions do not yet allow their functioning to be trul effective.For the above problems,perfecting the current consumer civil public interest litigation system in our country should pay attention to the following points:expanding the scope of the subject of prosecution;clarifying the legal provisions on the claim;activating the function of the pre-litigation procedure;establishing an incentive system to reduce the pressure of litigation costs.