Who will regulate the trap of "automatic renewal"? App | Byte | Trap

On July 19th, the State Council Information Office held a press conference, and Zhao Zhiguo, spokesperson and chief engineer of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, emphasized once again that the focus will be on cracking down on pain points such as fraudulent and misleading downloads and mandatory automatic renewal reported by users.

One cent experience membership? Suspected of consumer fraud!

In recent years, with the rapid development of more and more audio and video websites, some content and services on many apps are only provided to members, and a large number of consumers have to choose to open membership. And "automatic renewal" has become a consumption trap they frequently encounter.

The reporter searched for the four words "automatic renewal" on the Black Cat complaint software, and surprisingly, a total of 127688 complaints appeared on the page.

There are also many discussion topics about automatic renewal on Weibo, with the highest topic currently having 150 million reads and 16000 discussions.

In 2021, a comparison released by the Shanghai Consumer Protection Commission showed that Bilibili, Youku, and others set the automatic renewal deduction time to start 3 days before the expiration date, making it difficult for consumers to defend themselves.

In July this year, Li Qing'ao, a consumer in Wuxi, saw an experience activity of opening members for 2 days at 1 yuan on Station B. With Alipay, he could also reduce another 0.99 yuan, which is equivalent to experiencing members for 2 days at 1 cent.

Mr. Li thought he could easily pick up the wool from Bilibili, but to his surprise, he was tricked by Bilibili. Two days later, Mr. Li received a billing information with a deduction of 15 yuan, and the billing details were clearly the automatic renewal service for Bilibili members. Mr. Li only found out after calling customer service that this 1 cent is bundled with automatic renewal.

Mr. Li is very dissatisfied with the implicit bundled sales behavior on Bilibili, and is determined to refund his 15 yuan automatic renewal. However, no matter how many times Mr. Li makes phone calls, customer service deliberately avoids the fact that the 1 yuan experience activity is tied to automatic renewal, making refunds an impossible thing.

Why does the customer service on Bilibili say that automatic renewal can be cancelled at any time when consumers want a refund? Regarding such practices on the platform, the lawyer pointed out that they are illegal.

Yue Shenshan, Senior Partner of Beijing Yuecheng Law Firm: Article 19 of the Electronic Commerce Law of the People's Republic of China clearly stipulates that when selling goods, they cannot be bundled and cannot make a default choice for consumers in advance, which is illegal.

There is no clear prompt for automatic renewal on the 1-yuan experience activity page of Station B, but the words "automatic renewal" appear on the payment interface of Alipay, with small font size and light color. Lawyer Yue Jianshan believes that this behavior of Station B does not fulfill a significant obligation of prompt and notification, and is suspected of seriously damaging the legitimate rights and interests of consumers.

In a recent investigation, the reporter found that there is still a problem of default selection for Bilibili's major navigation members. However, in February this year, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology clearly stipulated in the notice on further improving the capability of mobile Internet application services that if the service is provided in the form of automatic renewal and automatic renewal, the consent of users should be obtained, and the default check, mandatory bundling and automatic renewal should not be allowed. Station B still continues to carry out the default check, mandatory bundling and automatic renewal until today, ignoring the notice of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

The reporter's investigation also found that apps such as iQiyi and Jianying have not even given consumers the right to check.

Automatic renewal? The money has been paid and cannot be paid out

Zhao Fang, a consumer in Guiyang, opened the first month of membership of the Clipper App under ByteDance in December 2022 for 19 yuan, and paid through Tiktok Wallet. I uninstalled it after using it for less than a month. But it wasn't until July this year that she realized she had been deducted a full 7 months of continuous monthly membership fees, with a monthly deduction of 25 yuan, totaling 175 yuan.

During this period, Ms. Zhao did not download or use the Jianying software again, but was forced to charge a continuous monthly fee, and Ms. Zhao has not received any notification. Ms. Zhao contacted the customer service of Jianying and requested a refund. But to her surprise, the customer service refused a refund on the grounds of virtual products, which Ms. Zhao couldn't accept at all.

Guiyang consumer Zhao Fang: If you notified me, I would have paid as long as I knew, and I am not unable to afford it. Don't say it's 175 yuan, even 17.5 yuan, I think you have indeed infringed on my rights.

In order to protect her rights and interests, Ms. Zhao called the official customer service number of ByteDance Company. The customer service said that there would be an in station reminder in the clip app five days before the monthly deduction. But Ms. Zhao had already uninstalled the Jianying software seven months ago, and the website reminded her that she couldn't receive it at all. She sighed, if she only discovered this problem after 3 or 5 years, she estimated to deduct the cost for 3 or 5 years.

The customer service staff of Beijing ByteDance Technology Co., Ltd. asked Ms. Zhao to contact Jianying App for a refund, and the customer service staff of Jianying App told Ms. Zhao that Tiktok was still the place to ask for a refund. Both sides kicked each other around, shifting blame, and avoided the key issues raised by Ms. Zhao with a fixed process, script, or even a shuffling strategy.

Guiyang consumer Zhao Fang: In their opinion, it may seem like a small matter, but if this matter is magnified in a small way, and 10 people are in the same situation, 100 people, 1000 people, 10000 people, that is a lot of money. Obtaining money through this informal way is, to put it bluntly, a scam on our money.

Consumer Wang Xuan, who lives in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, opened the Da Hai Hai membership service on Bilibili for 138 yuan in May this year. Unexpectedly, she only received payment deduction messages every month thereafter and never received any automatic renewal reminders. I only found out after contacting customer service that Bilibili only sent a message as a reminder within the site. However, for those who do not open or log in to Bilibili, this message did not serve as a reminder to consumers.

Lu Yun, Director of the Consumer Rights and Interests Legal Professional Committee of the Beijing Lawyers Association and lawyer of the China Consumers Association, said: We do not believe that if the operator fulfills the obligation of disclosure, it will also infringe on the consumer's right to know, and he should also bear corresponding responsibilities.

It is worth noting that Ms. Wang's private message reminders on Bilibili in Hangzhou were all sent by the platform in the early morning. Lawyer Lu believes that the merchant's behavior did not effectively inform them.

Lu Yun, Director of the Consumer Rights and Interests Legal Professional Committee of the Beijing Lawyers Association, Lawyer of the China Consumers Association, said: If it is sent at 2:30 pm at night, consumers may easily overlook it during the day. Therefore, in judicial practice, the judgment is not based on the operator's issuance as an effective condition, but in reality, it is based on the ability to effectively inform consumers and deliver to them as a basis for judgment. For example, you can send messages to consumers through SMS or inform them by phone.

Cancellation of no door, complaints of no door, and being locked in a small black room upon arrival

What are video websites going to do?

Chen Jianhao, a consumer living in Shenzhen, suddenly remembered that the automatic renewal function had not been turned off after a brief two months of using the Jianying App. When he wanted to close it, he couldn't find the entrance to cancel the automatic renewal.

Chen Jianhao, a Shenzhen consumer: I have searched for a long time. I have searched for all kinds of store menus and found that it was originally hidden in the VIP corner sign on the right side of the account name. The corner sign looks like an attached medal sign, without the sense of atmosphere at the entrance. When I clicked in carelessly, I found that there was a second line of small characters, and when I clicked in, I would jump to the second level page, and then told me, for example, how to close the WeChat terminal or Tiktok, but it did not provide a relatively fast jump button.

Mr. Chen found that not only is the entrance concealed, but canceling the automatic renewal step of the Scissor App is also a high difficulty challenge to memory. Young people take a lot of time, let alone middle-aged or elderly people to handle it.

Why can't Jianying cancel automatic renewal in their own app? Why is the cancellation process so tedious? The official customer service of ByteDance only records and does not answer. When the reporter came to the ByteDance headquarters in Beijing as a consumer, he did not expect that the process of finding the answer was as cumbersome as the process of canceling the automatic renewal of the clip app. Firstly, the reporter was forced to take photos by security guards.

Then the reporter was escorted to another building across the street. In a closed windowless cabin, a staff member claiming to be from the security department received the reporter. After a detailed inquiry into the journalist's identity, he also requested that the journalist provide a power of attorney from the parties involved on site.

Staff of ByteDance Technology Co., Ltd.: What is my name, how many mobile phone numbers, how many ID number numbers, who is authorized, how many mobile phone numbers, how many ID number numbers, and when ByteDance handles the clipping complaints, and when, and then the signature of the client, and the date.

Staff: I can't see it.

Staff: You are just your cousin entrusting you to report this matter, and I will represent our platform to handle this matter. It doesn't matter who you meet.

Staff: We will inform you of our conclusion.

As a VIP member of ByteDance, he paid membership fees and encountered problems in the process of consumption. Whether he complained online or reported problems to the company headquarters, he encountered cumbersome and rigorous processes. The dignity and rights of consumers seemed so small and helpless in these cumbersome and rigorous processes. The reporter wants to know how companies like ByteDance understand the meaning of the word "users are God".

Yue Shenshan, Senior Partner of Yuecheng Law Firm, believes that such cumbersome procedures are suspected of seriously infringing on the legitimate rights and interests of consumers.

Yue Shenshan, Senior Partner of Beijing Yuecheng Law Firm: This is a very direct and specific violation of Article 18 of our Measures for the Supervision and Administration of Online Transactions. In this type of service that automatically extends, consumers need to be provided with an option to terminate or renew their subscription at any time, as well as to stop such services at any time. Moreover, this option, or service, should be conveniently provided to consumers.

Guo Yaozong, Deputy Director of the Complaints Department of the China Consumers Association, believes that rectifying the chaos of automatic renewal requires joint efforts from the whole society.

Guo Yaozong, Deputy Director of the Complaints Department of the China Consumers Association: In addition to improving legislation, we also need to strengthen administrative supervision. For example, relevant administrative authorities can jointly carry out special law enforcement actions for automatic renewal of apps, establish a joint disciplinary mechanism, and form a joint regulatory force. Of course, as a consumer association organization, we can also fully play the role of social supervision and urge operators to make timely corrections through interviews and other means. For those illegal and irregular operators with malicious nature, stubborn attitude, and significant impact, public interest litigation can also be filed in a timely manner.