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recently, the sichuan provincial consumer protection committee released the "investigation report on the protection of internet consumers' right to know" (hereinafter referred to as the "report"), and collected 17,411 valid questionnaires. the questionnaire analysis pointed out that there are many problems in the protection of internet consumers' right to know, including "fake orders and fake reputation", "big data killing old customers", "automatic renewal" and other areas where the right to know is seriously infringed.

on september 18, the report released by the sichuan provincial consumer council mentioned that the department, in conjunction with the office of the cybersecurity and informatization committee of the sichuan provincial party committee, organized a consumer survey on the current status of protection of online consumers' right to know on the official wechat public account and weibo of the "sichuan consumer council" from july 15 to 26, 2024. the survey was conducted in the form of an online questionnaire, focusing on understanding the specific extent of infringement of the right to know of sichuan consumers with online consumption experience in areas where the right to know is severely violated, such as "fake orders and credit speculation", "big data killing old customers", and "automatic renewal".

the report points out that there are mainly four types of problems in protecting the right of online consumers to know.

false propaganda is common, and fake orders and fake reputation are prominent. the authenticity of product and service information and price transparency are insufficient, and the protection of online consumers' right to know faces severe challenges. 31% of the respondents have encountered "false propaganda in pictures and texts", and more than half of the respondents reported that they encountered problems such as "the pictures and styles do not match the prices" and "the product functions are fictitious or exaggerated" during the shopping process. 47.96% of the respondents believed that "the price information is not clear", and 46.34% of the respondents often encountered "fake orders and fake reputation". the fake order and fake reputation phenomenon is particularly prominent in emerging e-commerce forms such as social e-commerce, live broadcast e-commerce and content community e-commerce. the main manifestations of "fake orders and fake reputation" are concentrated evaluation time, similar content, too many good reviews, exaggerated content, and empty content.

second, big data often kills familiar customers, and low-price inducement and repeated charges. consumers face a series of problems related to price transparency and fairness, among which the most prominent is the phenomenon of "big data killing familiar customers". 49.28% of respondents "after purchasing the same product or service multiple times, the price gradually increased", 45.1% of respondents "after canceling or delaying the purchase, the price of the product changed when they checked it again", and 35.79% of respondents encountered "different prices for different users buying the same product or service from the same merchant at the same time". in platforms where consumers consume frequently, such as takeout, online travel, and online shopping, the phenomenon of "big data killing familiar customers" is more frequent. the problem of low-price inducement and repeated charges cannot be ignored. more than 40% of respondents have purchased products or services that are "low-price inducement and repeated charges" because of the attraction of merchants' "promises of additional benefits or services" and "limited-time discounts or promotional information". in the field of software/applications, there are more cases of "low-price inducement and repeated charges", accounting for 46.04%, which seriously damages the rights and interests of consumers and their confidence in the platform consumption environment.

third, user agreements are not transparent, and personal information protection is of high concern. the irregularities in user agreements and personal information protection may expose consumers to unpredictable risks and losses at any time. more than 40% of respondents have encountered the phenomenon that they must click "ok" in the user agreement in shopping and financial apps before using the app, and cannot preview the "user agreement" before "confirming". "difficult to understand", "small font and difficult to read" and "the location of the agreement is not prominent, and there is no clear prompt" are the main problems with the "user agreement", causing users to become victims of unreasonable terms of service providers without knowing the details. platforms or merchants collect consumers' personal information, and 49.32% of respondents "resist the restriction of core business functions due to refusing to collect information that they consider private". the most "collected" are "call records/contacts/text messages", "id number" and "mobile phone number", while "financial" and "video" platforms are most commonly accused of "collecting personal information". online platforms or app service providers do not protect personal information properly, and respondents are most often harassed or lose money due to "id theft", "phone leaks" and "email leaks".

fourth, there is no obvious reminder for automatic renewal, and insufficient notification of automatic jump to third-party web pages. more than 45% of the respondents did not know that there was an "automatic renewal option" when subscribing to the service. the automatic renewal option had problems such as "being checked by default and the font was very small", "hidden location", and even some users were unaware of it. 46.11% of the respondents were charged when "no reminder was received". "cancellation must be made through the manual customer service phone", "the cancellation process is complicated and requires multiple steps", "cannot be cancelled or cancellation conditions are set", etc. are the most difficult situations for "canceling automatic renewal". there is a clear lack of information notification for automatic jump to unknown third-party web pages. only 16.41% of the respondents believed that the merchant could clearly inform users of relevant information such as "third-party platform jump and its possible consequences" that may be involved when subscribing to the service, and 44.56% of the respondents encountered "unwanted advertising or promotion" due to automatic jump. these designs have situations where there is no prompt and clear explanation, which increases the risk of users being "invisibly charged" and "unknown consumption", and violates the relevant provisions of "prior" and "obvious reminder".

the sichuan provincial consumer council suggested that laws, regulations and industry standards should be improved, government supervision and law enforcement should be strengthened, the rights protection process and mechanism should be optimized, the platform's responsibility and self-discipline should be strengthened, merchants' awareness of honest business operations and consumer rights education and protection should be strengthened. in addition, consumers' legal awareness and self-protection ability should be improved, and measures should be taken in a timely manner to protect their rights when their rights are damaged. consumers should be guided to consume rationally and avoid blind and impulsive consumption.