Currently, prepaid consumption has become the mainstream consumption mode of many industries, although this mode for the convenience of payment, promote consumption, prosperous market play a role, but prepaid card in the use of the process there are exaggerated propaganda, consumption restrictions, merchants run away, no door to the refund of "consumer traps". On June 1, 2022, the Beijing Single-Use Prepaid Card Regulations (hereinafter referred to as "the Regulations") were formally implemented, so that the protection of consumer rights and interests in prepaid consumption has a clearer and more specific operational provisions.

This article combines the implementation of the Regulations, starting from the basic concept of prepaid cards, briefly summarizes the main highlights of the changes in the Regulations, lists the common prepaid card problems and coping strategies, and puts forward the solution to the problem of prepaid card consumption thinking and suggestions.

First, what is a clear prepaid card

(a) the concept of prepaid card.

Prepaid card refers to the purpose of profit,

within the designated scope of the issuing organization to purchase goods or services of the prepaid value,

including the adoption of magnetic stripe, chip and other technologies in the form of cards, passwords and other forms of electronic payment cards, that is, pay first and then consume the payment card. This mode of payment before consumption, its legal relationship

is essentially the contractual relationship between consumers and operators

, by the cardholder to pay a certain amount of money in advance, within a certain period of time in accordance with a certain way to accept goods or services of consumer behavior.

(ii) the classification of prepaid cards. Prepaid cards are divided into single-use and multi-purpose two types.

Multi-purpose prepaid card,

is used to "buy" goods or services, to play the payment function, almost instead of the use of money, is a financial behavior, such as business card, card, card, new easy card, card, and so on. Multi-purpose prepaid cards are regulated by banks, and their regulation is relatively strict.

Single-purpose prepaid card,

is used to "cash" goods or services, more focused on the function of the certificate, is a contractual behavior, such as beauty cards, fitness cards. Single-use prepaid card regulation is relatively loose, the responsibility is not clear enough.

Therefore, it is the main object of the current urgent need to regulate and strengthen supervision.

(C) single-use prepaid card "four attributes" and "three systems". Single-use commercial prepaid card management approach" (for trial implementation) clear single-use commercial prepaid card "four attributes" and "three systems". "Four attributes":

issuance of the main body,

issuance of the main system of enterprises engaged in a particular industry, that is, engaged in retail, accommodation and catering, residential services, business corporations;

the use of limited, the use of limited to a specific range, that is, in the enterprise or the enterprise group or the same brand franchise system;

voucher uniqueness, voucher uniqueness, voucher uniqueness, voucher uniqueness, voucher uniqueness, voucher uniqueness, voucher uniqueness, voucher uniqueness, voucher uniqueness.

The uniqueness of the certificate, the nature of a clear prepaid voucher;

The diversity of forms, the form of unlimited carriers, including physical cards and virtual cards. The "three systems":

real-name card purchase system, individuals or units to buy rechargeable registered card, or a one-time purchase of more than 10,000 yuan (including) anonymous card, should be real-name card purchase;

non-cash card purchase system, a unit of a one-time purchase of single-purpose cards amounting to more than 5,000 yuan (including) or a one-time purchase of an individual card amounting to 50,000 yuan (Including) or more, as well as units or individuals using off-site way to buy cards, should be through bank transfers, not cash;

limit card purchase system, a single bearer card limit shall not exceed 5,000 yuan, a single bearer card limit shall not exceed 1,000 yuan.

Second, a brief description of the main highlights of the Regulations

"Regulations" in the implementation of the "People's Republic of China *** and the Protection of Consumer Rights and Interests Act" and fully protect the rights and interests of consumers under the premise of regulating operators to issue, cash single-use prepaid card related behaviors, to address the public's feedback on the focus of the safety of pre-paid funds, contractual terms and conditions, refunds, and the difficulty of proof of the salient issues; balance between the government's supervision and The relationship between government regulation and business environment, consumer protection and business autonomy, in order to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of consumers and stimulate market vitality to achieve a win-win situation.

First, the government's regulatory responsibilities to establish a sound social **** governance mechanism.

The Regulations clearly establish a sound coordination mechanism for the long-term management of work, industry authorities bear the industry, the field of prepaid card regulatory responsibilities, that is, "who is the competent authority in the industry, who manages the industry prepaid card", the industry authorities are not clear, the government designated the relevant departments responsible for the supervision and management of the regulations; the Regulations clear Government departments to use policy interpretation, case analysis and risk analysis and other ways to consumers, operators, publicity notes, tips prepaid card payment risk, to provide support for consumers to protect their rights; Regulations also provides for consumer associations, industry associations, chambers of commerce to guide rational consumption, tips payment risk, the obligation to resolve mediation disputes.

The second is to regulate the issuance and payment of prepaid cards to protect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers.

According to the practice of disputes and complaints and consumer complaints reflecting the outstanding issues, the "Regulations" stipulates that the operator should fulfill a number of obligations; in order to solve the "difficult to return the card" problem, the "Regulations" stipulates that consumers who purchase a card within seven days of non-consumption, have the right to request the operator to return the card, the operator should be a one-time full refund. The operator did not provide goods or services in accordance with the agreement, the balance is not enough to pay the single minimum consumption and other circumstances, should be in accordance with the agreed period of time to return the balance, there is no agreement or agreement is unclear, the period of fifteen days from the date of the consumer's request for a refund.

Third, the establishment of the record and fund depository system to protect the safety of prepaid funds. The Regulations provide that operators issue prepaid cards over a certain number, the amount of scale, should be filed, the specific size and requirements determined by the competent authorities in the industry. Through the establishment of prepaid card service system,

for the operator to record, consumer inquiries to provide convenience; the Regulations provide that the operator into the management of the depository should be in the depository bank to open a special depository account for prepaid card funds received in advance, will meet the prescribed requirements of the funds received in advance into a special depository account and in accordance with the provisions of the way to withdraw.

Fourth, the strengthening of the legal responsibility of civil liability, administrative liability. Operators damage the legitimate rights and interests of consumers, in addition to civil liability in accordance with the law, violation of administrative order, but also to bear administrative responsibility. In violation of the regulations issued prepaid cards, not in accordance with the provisions of the depository behavior, impose a fine of 20,000 yuan or more than 100,000 yuan; the circumstances are serious, ordered to cease business. The failure to issue vouchers, failure to keep records and other acts, a fine of more than two thousand yuan ten thousand yuan or less. Deliberate delay or unreasonable refusal to return the advance receipts, a fine of ten thousand yuan or more than fifty thousand yuan. Not in accordance with the provisions of the record, a fine of one thousand dollars or less than five thousand dollars.

Third, the list of common problems of prepaid consumption and response

Problem 1: material lure, false advertising. Operators in the profit motive, often exaggerated, and even false publicity of their own products and service quality, so that consumers have to enjoy the preferential services and card consumer psychology.

Response: Article 10 of the Regulations stipulates that: operators issuing prepaid cards, shall not make false

or misleading publicity. For operators to carry out false propaganda, according to "

People's Republic of China *** and State Advertising Law

" "People's Republic of China *** and State Anti-Unfair Competition Law

" and other laws and regulations, impose a fine of 1 to 200,000 yuan; "

People's Republic of China *** and the Protection of Consumers' Rights and Interests Law

Article 55 provides: "The operator to provide goods or services with fraudulent behavior. Goods or services with fraudulent behavior, shall be in accordance with the requirements of the consumer to increase the compensation for the losses suffered by the consumer, increase the amount of compensation for the consumer to purchase the price of the goods or services received three times the cost

; increase the amount of compensation for less than five hundred yuan, for five hundred yuan. The law provides otherwise, in accordance with its provisions".

Problem two: poor management, roll money and run away. Operators in the business process if the business is not good, the store will be transferred to others or absconded with the money, resulting in consumers have a card can not be consumed, the rights and interests of consumers are difficult to protect.

Response: Article 18 of the Regulations specifies the requirement of "informing or announcing the closure of the operator, change of business premises, etc."; Article 22 of the Regulations specifies the establishment of a "pre-received funds depository system", which requires merchants who meet the filing requirements to register their pre-received funds in a centralized database. Requirements to meet the filing conditions of the merchant must be in the depository bank to set up a special account, the merchant to collect the prepaid card funds must enter this account, and then the merchant needs to be in accordance with the provisions of the account can be withdrawn from the money, very effective in preventing merchants to roll money to run away.

Problem three: Easy recharge, difficult to refund. Some merchants often lower discounts, more favorable, do card back to lure consumers for prepaid cards. Charge good words, but the refund is delayed for various reasons and difficulties, and delayed again and again; some merchants clear refund to pay a certain transfer fee.

Response: "No refunds" is a typical unfair and unreasonable format terms, is commonly known as the "king of terms". Regulations, Article 15 provides that: the operator to formulate the format terms, notices, statements, store notices, consumer information shall not contain no refund, not to make up, the interpretation of the right to the operator and other unfair to consumers, unreasonable provisions. If the merchant does not refund the card, the consumer can report the complaint to the relevant administrative department. If the consumer unilaterally requests a refund after opening and using the card, the merchant may, on the basis of negotiation, deduct the expenses incurred and then refund the balance to the consumer at one time. If the two sides did not agree in advance to refund matters or agreement is not clear, the merchant is in the contract contractual responsibility there is a lack of, should be interpreted in favor of the consumer implementation.

Problem four: lack of contract, responsibility and power

unknown. Some operators take advantage of the weakness of consumers' weak legal awareness, do not take the initiative to provide a written contract; some business organizations do not have any written agreement or contract, only through the payment record as the only proof;

In practice, some consumers the actual number of times and the price of each specific consumer charges, only by the business of the computer can be queried.

Response: From a legal point of view, prepaid card consumption is a contractual relationship between the consumer and the operator, so the card should be signed a written contract. Article 13 of the Regulations provides that: operators should be issued to consumers to set out the payment of goods or services vouchers. Consumers can take the initiative to ask merchants to provide proof or use the "Beijing retail, catering, residential services, single-use prepaid card service contract (model text)", requiring proof of the number of services, service standards and refund matters. If the merchant still refuses to do so, he or she can file a complaint with the relevant administrative department. In addition, Article 19 of the Regulations provides that the operator shall keep transaction records for at least three years from the date of completion of the transaction.

Problem 5: Disclaimer, intentionally hidden.

Some merchants in the consumer for prepaid cards, through deliberate concealment or deliberately evasive and other ways to trick consumers into signing, so that consumers agree to some of the operator's exemption from liability clauses, such as "contract fulfillment, members of the personal reasons for the provision of unilateral termination of the Company will not refund any fees.

Response: Article 10 of the Regulations stipulates that: the operator issued prepaid cards, should be true, comprehensive and accurate to the consumer prepaid card purchase, the use of relevant information.

Article 26 of the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of Consumers' Rights and Interests

also stipulates that the premise of the agreement is that the consumer is fully informed, and the contract signed by the consumer in the case of being misled is invalid and not legally binding. If this leads to consumer rights and interests, the business should also be liable for compensation.

Fourth, to explore the solution to the prepaid consumer thinking and suggestions

The reasons for the frequent occurrence of prepaid consumer problems are summarized mainly with the current lack of regulations and systems, the lack of risk prevention mechanism, the prepaid consumer supervision is lax, consumers are not strong awareness of prevention and other factors. In this regard, the author puts forward four suggestions from the consumers' rational consumption and active defense of their rights, the operators' honesty and law-abiding and strict performance, the industry associations' improvement of the convention to strengthen self-regulation, and the regulators' sound regulations to strengthen supervision:

(1) From the consumers' level:

Purchase the prepaid cards according to the actual needs, and don't be greedy for the cheap and large amount of the purchases. Generally speaking, 30% or more substantial discounts, not in line with the law of profitability of the card-issuing enterprises industry

;

Try to choose a large brand, high credibility of the capital record of merchants to buy; detailed understanding of the card matters, a careful review of the terms of the contract, a clear understanding of the rights and obligations of the two sides, to save the consumer vouchers, once encountered consumer disputes, and timely to the relevant departments of the complaint, and actively defend their rights.

(2) from the operator level: the operator as a business service provider, we must seriously study the prepaid consumption of relevant laws and regulations, strict fulfillment of the main responsibility, in accordance with the industry regulatory filings; strengthen the internal standardization of management, the development of standardized contract text, and conscientiously fulfill the obligations agreed upon; standardize the management of the prepaid funds, the establishment of a fast processing mechanism for refunds; adhere to the integrity of the standardized, legitimate business, to enhance the credibility of enterprises, to create a good environment for the operation and maintenance of consumer goods. Create a good business environment.

(C) from the industry association level: accelerate the legislation to clarify the boundaries of administrative supervision and industry supervision, promote the development of industry associations self-regulatory conventions, strengthen the industry, the field of self-regulation, self-restraint; play a coordinating role in industry associations, guide members to comply with the issuance of the card, conscientious compliance; play the role of industry associations to bridge, and actively expand the function of dispute resolution, and explore the establishment of a rapid processing of consumer complaints mechanism.

(4) from the law enforcement and regulatory level: through the continuous improvement of laws and regulations, the formation of a systematic industry management norms. At present, only Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu and other provinces and cities have formulated local regulations on the management of single-use prepaid cards.

Therefore, there is a need for special legislation from the access conditions, business requirements, capital supervision, rights and remedies, and other multi-dimensional legislation, so that the supervision and enforcement of the law; by increasing the administrative penalties and credit penalties, severe punishment of offenders; smooth criminal linkage mechanism, for the suspected illegal possession and false fraud, depending on the circumstances of the pursuit of their criminal responsibility.