App Auto-Renewal Problems in China Complaints and Solutions
TapTechNews July 7th news, today CCTV News published an article reporting the problems existing in App auto-renewal. The article said that in recent years, App auto-renewal has been frequently complained by consumers, and it is easy to 'fall into the pit' but difficult to 'get out of the pit'.
Nowadays, many Apps have launched the auto-renewal function. After consumers enjoy the initial preferential trial, they often unknowingly be automatically transferred to the paid service, but it is extremely difficult to cancel this service. It is reported that recently, Ms. Li in Wenzhou City encountered such a problem. She downloaded a video editing software, which provided a 7-day free trial period, and there were words on the software's home page indicating '7 days free trial, and then automatically renew at $48.29 per year'. Ms. Li was not satisfied during the trial period, so she uninstalled the software, but found herself still being charged forcibly after the trial period. Ms. Li believed that the merchant's behavior belonged to forced buying and selling, so she wanted to reason with the merchant, but couldn't contact the back-end after-sales customer service at all.
Ms. Li believed that the merchant should confirm whether the consumer is satisfied and willing to continue to subscribe to the service before deduction. The market supervision department of Lucheng District, Wenzhou City quickly intervened in the investigation and found that the merchant used extremely small fonts when prompting auto-renewal, resulting in consumers hardly noticing this information. The merchant involved argued that this was due to different operating requirements of different mobile phone systems. For example, Android users can cancel the subscription within the App, while Apple users need to go into the personal account in the settings to operate.
Consumer rights protection experts point out that the core problem of auto-renewal lies in that the consumer's right to know and the right to choose have not been fully guaranteed. Consumers are directly deducted fees without full knowledge and consent. Chen Yinjiang, deputy secretary-general of the Consumer Rights Protection Law Research Society of the China Law Society, said that even if consumers uninstall the App, they will continue to be deducted fees, which seriously violates the consumer's right to know and property safety.
Under the mediation of the market supervision department, Ms. Li finally got a refund. However, there are still many consumers facing similar distress. According to the data of the Black Cat Consumer Complaint Platform, from April 1, 2023 to March 31, 2024, the number of auto-renewal complaints received on this platform within one year reached 70,011 times, and consumers lost more than 20 million yuan.
The China Consumers Association said that the complaints of online auto-renewal mainly focus on the infringement problems before opening the paid service and the rights protection problems during the service process. Guo Yaozong, deputy director of the Complaint Department of the China Consumers Association, said that it is mainly manifested in inducing consumption in the form of low-price free trial, etc. And there is no effective reminder obligation when it expires; mandatory early renewal; and after consumers cancel auto-renewal, the paid service is immediately terminated; and it is difficult to refund the auto-renewal fee, and still be deducted fees after closing auto-renewal and unable to contact the artificial customer service, etc.
According to TapTechNews understanding, the 'Regulations for the Implementation of the Consumer Rights P rotection Law of the People's Republic of China' will come into effect on July 1 this year, requiring operators to significantly remind consumers to pay attention before providing auto-renewal or renewal services to protect the rights and interests of consumers.