On March 14, the Beijing Internet Court (BIC) and the China Consumers Association (CCA), together with China's major e-commerce platforms, put forward an initiative to further regulate the application of the 7-day unconditional return policy, in a bid to foster a better business environment and facilitate a healthy development of the consumer market.

Vice-President of the BIC Zhao Ruigang, Deputy Secretary-General of the CCA Pan Haifeng, and representatives of six major e-commerce companies attended the event.

Zhao said that as an important article that protects consumer rights and enhances consumer spending power in the Law on the Protection of Consumer Rights and Interests, the 7-day unconditional return policy plays a critical role in digital consumption.

As the digital economy and digital consumption develop in a diversified manner, new problems have emerged in the application of the policy, Zhao noted, saying that it's necessary for the BIC to join hands with the CCA to propose the initiative and engage more e-commerce platforms to boost confidence in consumption and build a healthy and fair digital consumption environment, as well as to facilitate the sustainable development of the digital economy. 

A representative from JD.com acknowledged the policy's role in improving consumer experience and enhancing the mutual trust between consumers and e-commerce platforms, and vowed at the event that JD.com will shoulder its corporate social responsibility and protect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers. 

In his speech, Pan said that as an organization that conducts social supervision over goods and services, the CCA will protect consumer rights in accordance with the eight statutory responsibilities entrusted by the Consumer Rights Protection Law, and urge enterprises to be "the primary responsible person" for consumer rights protection.

The CCA will coordinate with consumers associations nationwide to solve minor disputes through law-based approaches to protect consumers' rights, such as disciplinary talks, investigation and mediation, and filing for appraisal, Pan noted.

For those behaviors that seriously harm the legitimate rights and interests of consumers, the CCA and provincial-level consumers associations will launch civil public interest litigation to safeguard social public interests, further enhance consumer confidence, and stimulate consumer vitality, he added.