Online cultural and tourism consumption disputes have increased significantly. The Beijing Internet Court, which tried to prevent technology infringement risk, sold tickets but bundled invisible value-added services, and was found guilty of fraud; A homestay voucher marked as' Safe Refund ', but cannot be withdrawn after refund; In recent years, with the rapid development of China's cultural tourism market, online cultural tourism consumption data has continued to rise, leading to an increasing number of consumer disputes. The reporter of the Rule of Law Daily recently interviewed the Beijing Internet Court and learned that the online cultural tourism consumption behavior involves multiple subjects, and the cases accepted mainly involve three parties involved in online transactions, including consumers, e-commerce platform operators and platform operators. There are platforms that use their own technological and information advantages to set up false promotional information and infringe on consumer rights. The Beijing Internet Court reasonably delimits the technology application boundary through trial to prevent the risk of technology infringement. According to data from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, there were 474 million domestic tourists traveling during the Spring Festival holiday in 2024, with a total expenditure of 632.687 billion yuan. There were 16300 commercial performances nationwide, with box office revenue of 778 million yuan and 6.5765 million viewers. The above-mentioned consumption is mostly obtained through online channels or pre booked. Compared to traditional offline consumption, online cultural and tourism consumption is more convenient in terms of information acquisition, product selection, booking and cancellation. Online cultural and tourism operators have launched a wide range of cultural and tourism products through technological innovation, brand building, cross-border resource integration, personalized service customization, etc. Online cultural and tourism services have become a key link in the cultural and tourism industry. The Beijing Internet Court informed the society that from its establishment in September 2018 to the end of 2024, it had accepted 2052 online cultural tourism consumption cases. Among them, there were 135 cases in 2022, 447 cases in 2023, and 813 cases in 2024, with a significant increase in the number of cases. In such cases, over 90% of the causes are disputes over online service contracts, involving various aspects such as online cultural and tourism information inquiry, service booking, and after-sales service. More than 95% of the plaintiffs are consumers. Sun Mingxi, a full-time member of the Judicial Committee of the Beijing Internet Court, said that online cultural tourism consumption behavior involves multiple subjects, and the cases accepted by the Court mainly involve three parties involved in online transactions, namely consumers, e-commerce platform operators, and platform operators. The case covers various consumption scenarios of online cultural tourism, including travel, accommodation, performance tickets, travel product bookings, etc. Among them, the top three are air tickets, performance tickets, and hotel online bookings. In such cases, the types of consumer demands are mainly divided into: making fraudulent claims against the prices of online pre ordered products; Claiming invalidity of standard terms in response to unsubscribing service terms; Making fraudulent claims against service content that does not match the promotion; Failure to promptly notify and file a refund claim for contract changes. A small number of parties also claim that the platform improperly leaked personal information, resulting in consumers being defrauded. Sun Mingxi introduced that in such cases, more than half of them are concluded through mediation or withdrawal of the lawsuit, achieving the goal of efficient and substantive resolution of disputes. In cases concluded by judgment, some cases have rejected consumers' litigation requests. The main reason for rejection is that consumers still only file lawsuits against the platform as the defendant, even when the platform has already published or disclosed the identity information of the operators on the platform and there is no statutory liability. There are platforms that use technology infringement in online consumption, and the platform may use its own technological and information advantages to set false preferential information, infringing on consumer rights. In a case heard by the Beijing Internet Court, a platform was convicted of fraud because it sold tickets bundled with invisible value-added services. In this case, consumer Wang purchased a plane ticket on a plane ticket sales platform operated by a certain company. When purchasing tickets, the platform shows that the adult ticket has a face value of 280 yuan, and the cost of construction and fuel is 70 yuan. In addition, you can enjoy a 40 yuan discount, and the actual payment is 310 yuan. After receiving the ticket information provided by the platform, Wang searched on the official software of the airline and found that the actual ticket price was 230 yuan, with a total of 300 yuan for aircraft construction and fuel costs of 70 yuan. After investigation, the platform bundled a 10 yuan takeaway service package with the sale of airline tickets to Wang. Wang filed a lawsuit with the court, demanding that the platform refund the airfare and provide triple compensation. The court ruled that as a platform operator, a certain company has the ability and obligation to set up prominent and clear prompts on the user's purchase interface, as well as whether to check the option for value-added services. However, it did not clearly explain to Wang the composition and purpose of the payment amount, and Wang was unable to clearly understand the details of the expenses on the purchase interface, nor could he refuse to pay the additional fee of 10 yuan. The platform operator subjectively concealed the true situation, resulting in Wang paying a price higher than the original ticket price, and should bear punitive damages liability. The presiding judge of the case, Li Wenchao, stated that platform operators have an obligation to set up prominent and clear prompts on consumers' purchase interfaces and whether to select the option of value-added services. The platform operator's failure to clearly explain the composition and purpose of the payment amount to consumers constitutes intentional concealment of the true situation. It should be determined that the platform operator has committed fraud and should compensate consumers in accordance with legal provisions. The trial of this case provides reference and guidance on how to identify the platform's price fraud behavior, accurately grasp and apply legal norms, and has important regulatory and guiding significance for the platform to improve product design, product portfolio and product promotion. The Beijing Internet Court has also heard the case that the operator's ticket sales amount is higher than the amount shown in the itinerary, which constitutes fraud. In this case, a consumer purchased a flight ticket sold by a travel agency on a platform operated by a company in Beijing. After printing the itinerary, they found that the ticket price displayed on the itinerary was lower than the fee already charged. Therefore, they claimed that the three defendants constituted price fraud and should be compensated three times. The court held that the ticket seller, a certain travel agency, received a ticket price higher than the amount stated on the itinerary, which violated the relevant provisions of the Interim Measures for the Administration of Electronic Tickets of Civil Aviation of China and the Notice of the Civil Aviation Administration of China on Issues Related to Domestic Air Passenger Transport Sales Agency Fees, causing consumers to have a wrong understanding, violating the principle of fair trade, constituting fraud, and should refund the price difference and compensate three times the ticket price. The court believes that the above-mentioned behaviors carried out by platform operators or operators within the platform using the advantages of information technology are suspected of infringing on the legitimate rights and interests of consumers and are not conducive to the healthy development of the online cultural and tourism market. Wu Jiao, Judge of the Second Comprehensive Trial Division of the Beijing Internet Court, which regulates infringement in accordance with the law, said that standardizing the order of the online cultural tourism market, earnestly safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of consumers, and promoting high-quality development of the industry are the basic judicial guidance that the Beijing Internet Court adheres to in the trial of online cultural tourism consumption cases. She gave the reporter an example. In the case of Fang against a company's network service contract dispute, the Beijing Internet Court found that the performance ticket refund policy of a platform included two items: "the same ticket buyer only enjoys the green channel rights once" and "the second purchase after successful ticket refund does not enjoy the refund rights". When consumers purchase multiple performance tickets at the same time, it does not belong to the situation of "re purchase after successful ticket refund". The above format terms should be interpreted against the party providing the format terms, and the platform should refund all ticket purchase fees to consumers. In cases where consumers question the effectiveness of standard terms, we will rigorously examine the content of the standard terms and whether the provider of the standard terms has used reasonable methods to remind consumers to pay attention to terms that have significant interests, and based on this, accurately determine whether the content of the standard terms is effective for consumers Wu Jiao said that when there is a dispute between consumers and operators over the understanding of standard terms, they should first interpret them according to their usual understanding; When there are two or more interpretations, an interpretation that is unfavorable to the party providing the standard terms should be made to effectively protect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers. We fully respect operators' use of new technologies to lead industry innovation and development, carry out innovative integration of business formats, improve the level of online cultural and tourism digital services, and provide consumers with intelligent services. At the same time, the use of technological means to infringe upon the legitimate rights and interests of consumers shall be regulated in accordance with the law, and operators shall be guided to carry out industrial innovation within the scope prescribed by law Wu Jiao said. In combination with the problems found in the trial of the case, the Beijing Internet Court suggested that platform operators should actively perform the main responsibilities of business information verification and registration, product content review and management, and play the main role of ensuring information security and transaction security. At the same time, the ability to monitor, detect and judge illegal products such as price adjustment after placing an order, tying service packs, product replacement, big data killing, etc., should be improved, and the management measures for business violations should be optimized and improved. In addition, dispute resolution rules and procedures should be improved to facilitate communication channels between consumers, platforms, and merchants. Timely fulfill the obligation to compensate for disputes arising from platform self operated business; Encourage non self operated business disputes to be compensated in advance, and help operators improve their ability to resolve consumer disputes through platform announcements, merchant guides, online training, and other means. Operators should operate with integrity and legality, continuously publicize their business license, administrative permits related to their business operations, and improve their after-sales service system in a prominent manner. Consumers should enhance their legal awareness, carefully read contract terms, properly retain evidence in case of consumer disputes, and protect their rights rationally in accordance with the law. (New Society)