Chinese public wait for consumer protection to catch up with e-commerce

False advertising, unlicensed workers and non-refundable advance payments are rife. Digital economy accounts for growing share of GDP but the law has not been updated at the same pace. — SCMP

Ma Yuting has been in a tussle with an education company for three months. She prepaid more than 15,000 yuan (US$2,300 or RM9,462) in 2019 for her then eight-year-old daughter to have 360 sessions online to practise English with teachers in the Philippines. But at the end of last year, with half of the classes still to come, the company’s Beijing office was shut down and its service hotline disconnected.

“I contacted the salesperson,” Ma said. “At the beginning, she explained that the business was hit by Covid-19, with many teachers in the Philippines unable to work in lockdown, and asked me to be patient. Then later calls went unanswered.