Review For Legal Regulation Of Standard Terms In Online Shopping

Internet technology is booming,and the e-commerce economy is developing rapidly.Various e-commerce platforms have emerged,allowing consumers to buy a variety of goods while sitting at home with their mobile phones.Today,online shopping has become an integral part of consumers’ daily lives.For online operators,it is impossible to negotiate contract terms with a large number of online shopping consumers.Therefore,the standard terms have won the favor of online operators,but because the standard terms of online shopping contracts are unilaterally booked in advance by online operators for the purpose of repeated use,they have a preferential protection for the interests of online operators at the beginning of their establishment,and in practice there have also been many contract disputes arising from the unfair content of online shopping standard terms.In order to ensure the fairness of transactions and protect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers,reasonable legal regulations shall be made on the standard terms of online shopping contracts,so as to achieve a balance between the interests of both online operators and consumers in the transaction process.This paper discusses the legal regulation of standard terms and conditions of online shopping contracts.Chapter 1 provides an overview of the legal regulation of standard terms and conditions of online shopping contracts,and the first section explains the definition of relevant content of standard terms of online shopping contracts.The second section analyzes the seven characteristics of the standard terms of online shopping contracts that distinguish them from the general standard clauses.The third section describes the practical necessity of legal regulation of standard clauses of online shopping contracts in China,analyzes the actual situation,and finds that due to the particularity of the online contracting environment,there are problems such as limited rationality of consumer decision-making,unreasonable form and content of standard clauses in online shopping contracts,and limited legal remedies for consumers.It is believed that the current standard terms of online shopping contracts provided by business operators have aggravated information asymmetry and blindly deceived consumers into blind impulse consumption,so it is urgent to improve the legal regulation methods of standard terms of online shopping contracts.Chapter 2 focuses on the current situation and deficiencies of the legal regulation of standard terms of online shopping contracts in China,starting from the two aspects of legislative regulations and judicial regulations,and believes that there are three problems in China’s national legal system: the unclear "distinctiveness" standard of the operator’s reminder duty of care in the rules,the lack of flexibility in the validity rules,and the lack of regulation of changes to the standard terms of online shopping contracts.In judicial practice,it is difficult to judge consumers’ true knowledge of standard clauses,different standards for judging the reasonableness of obligations brought attention by business operators,and insufficient motivation for small value litigation.Chapter 3 is a reference for the regulation of standard clauses in foreign online shopping contracts.The first section introduces the regulatory methods in the United States,such as consumers’ right of withdrawal from online shopping contracts,and the content of standard clauses should be in a way that is convenient for consumers to read,etc.,which can be applied to the restrictions of the standard terms and conditions in China.The second section introduces the EU’s regulatory methods,in which the“blacklist and greylist” systems have reference significance for the content regulation of standard clauses in China,and the consumer hesitation period system also puts forward new ideas for reducing online shopping contract disputes.Section 3 summarizes the regulatory suggestions of the United States and the European Union on the standard terms of China’s online shopping contracts,which can be used as experience and borrowed from China’s legal regulation.On the basis of the foregoing,Chapter 4 puts forward suggestions for improving the legal regulation of standard clauses in online shopping contracts in China,and suggests further improving the prominence of clause content from both appearance and verbal expression.Establish a consumer hesitation period system,so that consumers and business operators enter into online shopping contracts out of rational decision-making and have sufficient time to know the content of the standard terms.Reasonably allocate the obligations of business operators and consumers,improve the information disclosure obligations of online operators,reasonably set up the reading obligations of online shopping consumers,and ease the pressure of judicial review.In terms of administrative law enforcement,it is recommended to review the content of online shopping standard clauses,produce online shopping format models,register and record changes to standard terms of online shopping contracts,supervise implementation work after the fact,strengthen and improve regulatory technical means,guide platform operators to increase remedies for standard clause content,and make up for the dilemma of insufficient motivation for small transaction consumers to litigate.In the context that online shopping has become the norm of life,standardizing the standard terms of online shopping contracts is of great significance to fair transactions,creating a good online shopping market environment,and protecting the legitimate rights and interests of consumers.