The Beijing market regulatory authority has lately issued guidelines to prohibit fabricating, altering, erasing, or blocking consumers’ comments, aiming to offer better protection to consumers’ legitimate rights and interests on online trading platforms.
As reported by Beijing Daily on Sunday, the Beijing Municipal Administration for Market Regulation released a set of regulatory guidelines. These guidelines cover various aspects including business operations, transparency, and restrictions on certain goods, with the intention of urging and guiding online trading platforms to fulfill their management responsibilities and safeguard the rights and interests of small – and micro – business operators as well as consumers on the platforms.
To safeguard consumers’ authentic feedback on the services and products provided on the platforms, apart from the prohibition on fabricating, modifying, deleting, or blocking consumers’ comments, the guidelines also forbid presenting information in a misleading way, like giving precedence to positive reviews over negative ones.
The guideline further prohibits online trade operators from coercing or indirectly pressuring consumers into agreeing to the collection and use of information that has no direct relation to business activities.
Moreover, when collecting and using sensitive information such as consumers’ personal biometric data, medical and health records, financial accounts, and personal whereabouts, explicit and separate consent from consumers must be obtained.
To address the issue that some business operators send unsolicited marketing messages, the guidelines stipulate that commercial messages cannot be sent without the prior consent of consumers.
When sending commercial messages, the senders are required to disclose their real identities and contact information and provide a clear, simple, and cost – free mechanism for consumers to opt out. If a consumer explicitly refuses, the sender must immediately cease sending messages and must not send them again under a different guise.
With the increasing popularity of virtual livestreamers in product marketing, the guidelines demand that virtual avatars created through technologies such as artificial intelligence, digital visuals, virtual reality, and speech syntheses and involved in livestream marketing must be clearly labeled.
In addition, to prevent service products from being “automatically renewed” without consumers’ awareness, online business operators must prominently remind consumers before automatic service extensions to protect consumers’ rights and interests.
