10 "official contracts" were released at once, matchmaking services have a "cooling-off period" and elderly care has a "trial period"
Some businesses are very "generous" when negotiating business, promising a lot of discounts and gifts, or are very "easy-going", often saying "these are not a problem", but when it comes to calculating money and fulfilling their promises, they change their faces.
In daily life, many consumers suffer from a lack of contract management awareness, blindly believe in verbal promises, or neglect to control the details of the contract, and are cheated by unscrupulous businessmen. The latest statistics from the Shanghai Market Supervision Department show that in recent years, contract disputes have accounted for a high proportion of various consumer complaints and reports in the city's market supervision field. In 2023, consumer complaints and reports caused by contract performance issues accounted for 12.3% of the total.
The reason for this is that in addition to consumers' lack of awareness of contract management, there is also the factor that relevant competent authorities have not provided enough regulatory guidance. Faced with the standard contracts unilaterally provided by operators, most consumers do not have sufficient room for choice, nor do they have enough professional knowledge and experience to "avoid pitfalls."
On June 26, the Shanghai Municipal Market Supervision Bureau, together with the Municipal Civil Affairs Bureau, the Municipal Education Commission, the Municipal Consumer Protection Committee and other departments, launched 10 consumer contract model texts, covering industries such as matchmaking services, home decoration, sports and fitness, and extracurricular training services for primary and secondary school students, so that ordinary people can have "official support" when signing contracts with operators, and try to avoid various traps buried in the format contracts unilaterally provided by operators. The contracts can be checked, downloaded and used on the official websites of the Shanghai Municipal Market Supervision Bureau and other departments.
Opening the "Shanghai Interior Decoration and Renovation Construction Contract Model Text", Zhu Qiong, director of the Consumer Satisfaction Workstation of the Shanghai Interior Decoration Industry Association, frankly admitted that compared with the contract model texts previously promoted in the industry, this version jointly reviewed by multiple competent departments is more standardized and rigorous, and can more effectively protect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers.
"Professional terminology alone can lead to a lot of tricks. The model contract text clarifies the definitions of a number of professional terms, so that operators with ulterior motives cannot infringe on the legitimate rights and interests of consumers by controlling the right of interpretation." Zhu Qiong introduced that taking "completion of project" as an example, it means that all project content agreed in the contract construction quotation has been completed and accepted by both parties. If this point is not clear, some operators will claim that the project has been completed without the acceptance of consumers and continue to ask for construction fees.
"In-suite construction area" is also a common "pitfall". Zhu Qiong pointed out that "in-suite construction area" generally refers to the sum of the areas inside the doors of bedrooms, living rooms, dining rooms, corridors, kitchens, bathrooms, storage rooms, balconies, closets, etc. However, some operators deliberately fail to make it clear when signing contracts with consumers, and later claim that chimneys, ventilation ducts, pipe wells or indoor stairs in split-level residential units within the structural area are not counted as "in-suite", and that additional fees will be charged. In response to this, the model contract text has set aside a special section to add a definition of "in-suite construction area".
"In the process of formulating the model contract text, we fully summarized and analyzed the historical complaint and reporting data, and collected a large number of consumers' needs and suggestions." Jin Lihui, director of the Marriage Management Department of the Shanghai Civil Affairs Bureau, said that the "Shanghai Marriage Introduction Service Contract Model Text" set up a "cooling-off period" for contract termination because it was found that many "impulsive" consumers regretted signing the contract within 3 to 7 days.
The unclear nature of service items, duration and charging standards is also a problem that consumers who purchase marriage introduction services have focused on when conducting surveys by civil affairs departments.
"The information verification and registration fee, the service fee for each appointment and social activity, the fee for each class of marriage and love counseling services, the proportion of liquidated damages to the total contract amount, etc. must be written down in detail to prevent consumers from being led by the nose by the operators." Jin Lihui introduced that similar clauses are also included in the sample text of the elderly care contract. The parties to the elderly care contract can agree on a trial period of no more than 30 days, and the parties will not bear any liability for breach of contract if the contract is terminated during the trial period.
In the past five years, Shanghai market supervision departments have taken the lead in formulating 28 model contract texts, focusing on consumer traps that three types of consumers have reported, and helping consumers "avoid traps" by clarifying them in the model contract texts.
Zhu Tao, deputy director of the Network Transaction and Market Regulation Supervision and Management Department of the Shanghai Municipal Administration for Market Regulation, said that in the past, there were three main types of consumer disputes caused by unclear contracts: difficulty in refunding prepaid fees, failure to honor sales promises, and defects in contract performance. Among them, defects in contract performance are more common in the education and training industry. During the performance of the contract, operators frequently change teachers, make it difficult to book courses, have poor service attitudes, and have a dirty and messy business environment.
"It's easy to pay but difficult to get a refund. Almost all the contract templates promoted this time contain clauses for 'proportional' refunds." Zhu Tao said that consumers can calculate the refund amount according to the proportion or formula based on the contract agreement. For example, the course progress and refund ratio are clearly stated in the off-campus training contract for primary and secondary school students, and the balance calculation formula is directly listed in the sports and fitness contract.
Although the "official contract" is good, because it is not mandatory, there may be a situation where consumers are enthusiastic but the business operators give a cold shoulder.
"It is precisely considering the possibility that model contracts may not be well received that the industry listed the use of model contracts as an inspection item for certified institutions years ago. Institutions that use standard contracts to infringe upon the legitimate rights and interests of consumers will face serious consequences such as obstruction of license renewal or even direct cancellation of qualifications." Jin Yi, a fourth-level researcher at the Shanghai Municipal Education Commission's Off-campus Education and Training Management Office, said that currently, all off-campus training institutions for children aged 0-3 years that have obtained school operating licenses have promoted the use of relevant model contracts.
Jin Lihui said that among the approximately 200 active matchmaking agencies in Shanghai, more than 50 have promised to use model contract texts or to revise the original industry standard contracts with reference to the model contract texts to include key clauses such as a "cooling-off period."
"Although model contract texts are not mandatory, after their promotion, consumers have the right to choose. They can 'vote with their feet' and choose those operators who actively use model contract texts," Jin Lihui believes.
It was revealed that the civil affairs department and other departments have started researching model contract texts for online matchmaking platforms.
