The Macao Consumer Council joined the national e-commerce online direct platform set up by China Consumers Association (CCA), Macao consumers will be able to file complaints directly with the e-commerce traders on the platform when consumer dispute arises and the involved traders promise to prioritize cases disputes from the online platform. The Council indicates that this will enhance the efficiency of handling consumer disputes of Macao consumers that involve online shopping in the Mainland and fully reflects the benefits of cross-border cooperation between consumer organizations.

Direct platform enables quick communication to follow-up on cases

Online shopping is very common nowadays, the number of complaint cases received by the Council has also increased in recent years and the number is expected to rise. A total number of 998 cases were received in 2018, which is more than double than the number in the previous year, a significant amount of these cases involve shopping on websites in China.

Wong Hon Neng, President of the Executive Committee of the Consumer Council, indicates that it was difficult to make contact when local consumers filed complaint cases against e-commerce traders in the Mainland, the Council therefore suggested the joining of the national e-commerce online direct platform set up by CCA.

Wong Hong Neng thanks the CCA for accepting the Council into the platform and hopes this cooperation will bring a more comprehensive and advanced protection to Macao consumers’ rights in online shopping. The advantage of cross-border cooperation also encourages both parties to push forward their works in consumer rights protection, make available a well-established mechanism for resolving online shopping disputes, and to boost consumers’ confidence.

Among the 58 complaint cases on online shopping received by the Council during the first 10 months of this year, about 20 percent of cases are related to e-commerce traders included in the mentioned direct platform, Wong indicates that the Council will be able to contact headquarters of these traders directly through this green channel, thus enabling faster resolution of consumer disputes of Macao consumers.

e-commerce trader promise to prioritize complaints

Zhu Jianqiao, Vice President and Secretary General of CCA, was invited to Macao to announce the joining of the Macao Consumer Council to the national e-commerce online direct platform and introduce the achievement of the platform since its establishment in 2016.

Zhu says that when handling consumer disputes in the past, it took a lot of effort to locate the e-commerce traders and they were sometimes unable to receive the complaint cases, thus increasing the cost and time for handling each case and led to conflicts of both parties. Since the establishment of the platform, consumers may file their complaints at their local consumer organizations regarding online shopping with traders included in the platform, the consumer organizations will then log in to the platform and refer the cases to the involved traders directly. Since the complaint cases will be handled by headquarters of the traders, the cost of consumers is lowered and efficiency of the work of the consumer organizations is increased.

The platform has received over 6700 cases as of October 2019 and most of them are settled, with over 60 percent of cases resolved through mediation.

There are currently 25 e-commerce traders included in the platform, and most of them are those familiar to Macao consumers when making cross-border consumption, these traders consist of over 90 percent of the B to C e-commerce happened in China.