China Consumers Association issued a document against ＂compulsory attention to WeChat official account＂ Expert： Very timely.

　　On June 19th, the China Consumers Association issued a document saying that it would carry out nationwide consumer supervision work of "opposing compulsory attention to WeChat official account", which aroused concern.

　　According to the document, in view of the problems existing in code scanning consumption, China Consumers Association will carry out nationwide consumption supervision work of "opposing compulsory attention to WeChat official account", and consumers can report such problems to China Consumers Association by e-mail (ccaxfjd@cca.org.cn).

　　China Consumers Association said that the current document is more of a programmatic document, aiming at arousing the awareness of the whole society that "compulsory attention to WeChat official account" infringes consumers’ right to independent choice and fair trade. In the next step, this work will be detailed and the progress and achievements of this work will be informed to the outside world at an appropriate time.

　　On June 20th, Professor Heshan, president of china law society Consumer Protection Law Research Association, told Red Star that consumers are forced to pay attention to the situation of WeChat official account in the process of consumption, which is quite common now. This work of China Consumers Association is very timely and necessary.

　　Lin Bing, a lawyer of Beijing Jingshi (Shenzhen) Law Firm, said that technological progress should have allowed consumers to enjoy the dividend of development, but the compulsory attention to WeChat official account made scanning code disappointing. The two-dimensional code walking all over the street has suddenly become a "blocking code" for consumption. At this time, it is necessary to clarify this stale market through consumers’ legal rights protection and supervision by the regulatory authorities.

　　Say no to "compulsory attention to WeChat official account"

　　Parking payment, ordering and shopping … … Nowadays, scanning code payment has become very popular, but this kind of consumption mode, which should be "efficient" and "convenient and fast", has brought troubles to many consumers because of the situation of paying attention to WeChat official account, mandatorily authorizing personal information, and pushing advertisements frequently every day.

　　After scanning the code, consumers are often harassed by a large number of irrelevant information such as advertisements and coupons sent by WeChat official account, and may also face the risk of personal information disclosure and falling into the consumption trap in the process of applying for various rights.

　　China Consumers Association said that it was based on the above background that China Consumers Association decided to carry out this "opposing compulsory attention to WeChat official account" consumption supervision.

　　Article 26 of China’s Law on the Protection of Consumers’ Rights and Interests stipulates: "An operator shall not make unfair and unreasonable provisions to consumers, such as excluding or restricting consumers’ rights, reducing or exempting operators’ responsibilities, and aggravating consumers’ responsibilities, by means of format clauses, notices, statements, shop notices, etc., and shall not use format clauses and technical means to force transactions." Article 29 stipulates: "Business operators shall follow the principles of legality, justness and necessity in collecting and using consumers’ personal information, clearly state the purpose, method and scope of collecting and using information, and obtain the consent of consumers. … …” Article 12 of the Regulations on the Management of Internet Users’ Public Account Information Services stipulates: "The public account information service platform shall standardize the mechanism for recommending and subscribing to public accounts, and shall not force or pay attention to other users’ public accounts in any way without the consent of Internet users."

　　China Consumers Association issued a document saying that scanning code consumption continues to be popularized, and operators require consumers to pay attention to WeChat official account. By placing orders, closing accounts and issuing invoices in WeChat official account, they can increase reading and attention, and attract consumers to pay more attention and patronize again through advertisements and information push, thus enhancing user stickiness. Operators regard paying attention to WeChat official account or using mobile phone apps and applets as the premise for consumers to exercise their rights or enjoy services, and in the process, they obtain personal information of consumers unrelated to services, which has violated the provisions of the Consumer Protection Law and the Personal Information Protection Law, and infringed on consumers’ independent choice and fair trade rights, and consumers have the right to refuse and report.

　　This is also the legal basis for China Consumers Association to carry out this work.

　　According to a document issued by China Consumers Association, at present, local consumer associations such as Beijing Consumers Association, Shanghai Consumer Rights Protection Committee, Jiangsu Consumer Rights Protection Committee and Shenzhen Consumer Committee have voiced their opinions on "mandatory attention to the use of code scanning", and appealed to shopping malls, restaurants, parking lots and other businesses not to force consumers to pay attention to the business WeChat official account and not to excessively ask for consumers’ personal information during the payment process of code scanning.

　　In view of the problems existing in scanning code consumption, consumers can report such problems to China Consumers Association by e-mail (ccaxfjd@cca.org.cn). China Consumers Association will entrust professional volunteers to collect, analyze and sort out the clues, and take warning, interview and persuasion, support consumer litigation, and file consumer civil public interest litigation according to the circumstances to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of consumers.

　　Expert: Reducing the cost of consumer rights protection is worthy of attention.

　　Regarding the activity carried out by China Consumers Association, Professor Heshan said: "At present, it is very common to pay compulsory attention to WeChat official account. As a consumer myself, I often encounter such situations in the process of consumption, especially junk advertisements. I think it is necessary to carry out this work."

　　Professor Heshan, at present, the consequences of compulsory attention to WeChat official account are mainly manifested in three aspects: First, setting up obstacles and closing the door by paying attention to WeChat official account, so that consumers will not be able to consume and receive services normally without paying attention to WeChat official account. Second, after paying attention to WeChat official account, junk advertisements will be constantly pushed to consumers’ mobile phones, similar to the past junk messages, which will be endless and cause troubles to consumers. And the icons deleted or blocked by these spam advertisements are hard to find, or cannot be deleted or blocked at all. According to the relevant laws and regulations, this is absolutely not allowed, and advertising push must have obvious closing icons, which is convenient for consumers to choose whether to accept these pushes. Third, consumers’ personal information is ingested, and even some personal information has nothing to do with WeChat official account’s consumption and services, which directly infringes on consumers’ personal information rights. A large number of consumers’ personal information can also easily lead to the risk of disclosure.

　　For consumers who encounter such problems, how to protect their rights more conveniently and quickly, Heshan believes that it is necessary to work together and improve the relevant channels step by step. For example, under the current situation, it is a feasible way for China Consumers Association to collect, analyze and sort out the clues by professional rights volunteers, and take the forms of prompting and warning, interviewing and persuading, supporting consumer litigation, and filing consumer civil public interest litigation according to the circumstances. As for the next step, it can be further improved according to the progress of the work.

　　"Whether in the process of this work or in other processes of safeguarding consumers’ rights and interests, reducing the cost of consumer rights protection and improving the efficiency of rights protection are issues worthy of attention. When many consumers encounter the infringement of their rights and interests in the process of consumption, especially in small amounts, they may feel that the cost of time and money paid for rights protection is too high, and they often choose to give up rights protection. This is a common phenomenon. To solve this problem, administrative supervision is more advantageous than litigation and arbitration. Relying on strong administrative supervision can greatly reduce the cost of consumer rights protection. When consumers encounter infringement of rights and interests rather than contract disputes, they should report to ‘ 12315’ Or the administrative department complains, and the relevant departments speed up the processing and increase the punishment, so that consumer rights protection will be more convenient and smooth. " Heshan said.

　　Lawyer: It is suggested to take a multi-pronged approach to deal with this phenomenon.

　　Lawyer Lin Bing, co-founder of Beijing Jingshi (Shenzhen) Law Firm, is also deeply touched by the compulsory attention to WeChat official account phenomenon.

　　Lin Bing said that property, parking lots, restaurants, businesses, etc. forced to pay attention to WeChat official account’s "circle powder", or even forced to collect personal information, which obviously exceeded the legitimacy and necessity of handling personal information stipulated in Article 5 of the Personal Information Protection Law, and was suspected of violating the provisions of Article 9 of the Consumer Protection Law, infringing on consumers’ independent choice, fair trade and right to know.

　　In addition, Lin Bing pointed out that the operating units in WeChat official account also violated the explicit provision of Article 6.2.2.2 of the WeChat Public Platform Service Agreement that it is forbidden to compel users to pay attention to WeChat official account. According to the Regulations on the Management of Internet Users’ Public Account Information Services, without the informed consent of Internet users, it is not allowed to subscribe to WeChat official account in any way or in disguised form. Forcing consumers to pay attention to WeChat official account is suspected of infringing consumers’ right to choose independently and collecting consumers’ personal information excessively. If businesses do not keep it properly, consumers’ personal information is at great risk of being leaked.

　　Lin Bing believes that technological progress should have allowed consumers to enjoy the dividend of development, but compulsory attention to WeChat official account has made scanning code disappointing. The QR code walking all over the street has suddenly become a "blocking code" for consumption. At this time, it is necessary to clarify this stale market through consumers’ rights protection according to law and supervision by regulatory authorities according to law.

　　To this end, Lin Bing suggested that consumers should defend their rights according to law, report and complain, and those suspected of infringing personal information can directly sue and demand compensation; The supervision department can supervise and inspect, and if it is verified, it will be punished according to law; Because of the high cost of personal rights protection for consumers with such problems, it is suggested that relevant procuratorates with the function of public interest litigation should file public interest litigation on behalf of consumers, so as to fundamentally eliminate this compulsory concern.

　　Red Star News Intern reporter Qi Biao reporter Wu Yang reports from Beijing

　　Editor Zhang Xun edited Deng Fanguang.