Online shopping is now the main way for many people to buy clothes, and many platforms also have a "seven day no reason return" rule, allowing consumers to buy and return with confidence. However, this mechanism originally established to protect consumers has now been maliciously exploited by some people. Some merchants have expressed that once they encounter malicious returns, they often encounter difficulties in obtaining evidence and high costs of safeguarding their rights. So now some merchants, especially clothing merchants, have come up with many tricks, such as using oversized tags. Who is responsible for malicious returns in online shopping? How to manage? What else can be done to protect the interests of consumers while also safeguarding the normal rights and interests of businesses? E-commerce clothing merchants are frequently subjected to malicious returns, helpless and helpless. Qinqin is an experienced e-commerce practitioner specializing in the fashion category. In the past, her main focus was on style promotion and order operations, but in the past two years, she has spent more time on handling returned items. What Yan Qinqin couldn't understand was that the clothing in the store had no quality issues, but still faced continuous returns. Some return orders even exceeded the "seven day no reason return" deadline, but consumers still applied for returns for various reasons. Merchant Yan Qinqin: Normally, it supports a 7-day no reason return period, but the longest after-sales period is 15 days, and customers can apply for a return within 15 days. Even more outrageous, some people say that they haven't worn or can't wear the clothes after two or three months of receiving them, and ask if they can return them. The reporter saw on Yan Qinqin's e-commerce backend that once the after-sales channel is opened, both parties need to provide various evidence to prove the status of the order. Normal return processing can be completed quickly, but once faced with complex return cases that require further arbitration of orders, Yan Qinqin finds it difficult to win. The recent return has made it even more difficult for Yan Qinqin to accept, as the returned item has already been damaged. Merchant Yan Qinqin: How can we cut it to make it look like this? We don't make clothes with such a big hole that can't be seen. As long as the user insists that I received it in this way, the platform will also refund them. Encountering malicious returns is not an isolated case. When Mr. Wang was managing performance costumes, he sold 40 pieces at once, but all of these costumes were quickly returned and clearly worn, making them unsellable. The shop owner learned that the Hanfu were purchased by students from a certain school for the school's collective performance. But some students returned their clothes after the performance ended. In the end, the school paid a deposit to the merchant and refunded the excess amount based on the student's return amount. The shop owner also stated that after the fee is refunded, he will resend it to Hanfu. The investigation by reporters found that the malicious return behavior experienced by e-commerce merchants, in addition to the ones mentioned earlier, is even targeted and committed in bulk. Lv Laiming, President of Beijing E-Commerce Law Research Association: Some competitors hire others to pretend that consumers will place orders and then return a large number of goods. In serious cases, they will transfer the goods after buying them, return the real ones and the fake ones, and then return the money. Recently, a merchant in Guangzhou found that a buyer's account frequently placed orders and returned goods on Taobao, Pinduoduo, Tiktok, WeChat applet and other platforms, and the returned goods were obviously inconsistent with the products issued by the company in terms of style and value. After sorting out the relevant transaction records, the merchant believed that the account's behavior was abnormal and subsequently sued the buyer to the court. Li Zhiqiang, Chief Judge of Huwan Court of Jinxi County People's Court, Fuzhou City, Jiangxi Province: Defendant Wu used the information gap between multiple platforms of the plaintiff and the "seven day no reason return" rule to apply for a return and refund on the grounds that the plaintiff sent the wrong goods, but the actual returned goods were not from the current order. This is a typical act of package transfer. After investigation, the defendant Wu committed the above-mentioned acts 21 times within 5 months, causing direct economic losses of 893.46 yuan to the merchant. Malicious returns occur frequently and harm the interests of ordinary consumers. In daily operations, when faced with some malicious returns, sometimes due to the small overall amount of the goods and the comprehensive cost of time and other factors, it is not common for merchants to directly seek legal channels to protect their rights. Merchants' rights protection is mostly appealed through platforms, but this channel often encounters difficulties in obtaining evidence and the lack of effective identification mechanisms and means on e-commerce platforms, ultimately resulting in the merchants bearing the losses. Returns, especially malicious returns, result in logistics, packaging, labor, and warehousing costs that are ultimately either passed on to consumers through price increases or may directly overwhelm small and medium-sized merchants. The continuously rising return rate is causing headaches for businesses, leading to a significant increase in logistics, labor, and product loss costs. Taking a piece of clothing priced at 150 yuan as an example, the gross profit margin per piece is 60 yuan, which includes operating costs of 20 to 30 yuan, logistics expenses of more than ten yuan, as well as a small amount of platform compensation and vouchers. The final net profit per piece is only about 15 yuan. Once a return is encountered, the repeated shipping costs generated from multiple sales will offset the remaining profits. The Consumer Rights Protection Law clearly stipulates that the premise of "seven day no reason return" is to ensure the integrity of the product, not to affect secondary sales, and not to exceed the 7-day no reason return period. The reporter's investigation found that e-commerce platforms have also set return conditions, such as not supporting 7-day no reason returns after cutting labels or using or washing. However, in practical operation, there is a lack of identification mechanisms and means for these situations, resulting in simple handling. Lv Laiming, President of the Beijing E-commerce Rule of Law Research Association: Overall or in the long run, it is not conducive to the interests of consumers, and they cannot obtain cost-effective products or enjoy high-quality goods and services. This will be a win-win situation. Expert analysis: Who will manage the chaos of malicious returns in online shopping? How to manage? Who will take care of the chaos of malicious returns in online shopping? How to manage? What are the current laws and regulations in our country? Legal expert Yue Yishan: There are clear provisions in Chinese law regarding malicious returns on the internet. Firstly, the Civil Code establishes the principle of good faith and requires civil subjects to follow the principle of good faith when engaging in civil activities. This means that you cannot use this rule to engage in behavior that violates good faith and harms the interests of others. The Implementation Regulations of the Consumer Rights and Interests Protection Law of the People's Republic of China, which will be implemented in 2024, also clearly stipulate that consumers who return goods without reason should follow the principle of good faith and credit, and shall not use the unreasonable return rules to harm the legitimate rights and interests of operators and other consumers. This clause is also the first time that an administrative regulation has been used to clarify the obligation to prohibit the abuse of the right to return goods. If a consumer maliciously returns goods using the 7-day no reason return rule, causing losses to the operator, according to relevant laws and regulations, the consumer should bear corresponding compensation responsibilities. In addition, there is another type that may use forged vouchers, or fabricate some quality issues, and even engage in the behavior of using AI to fabricate pictures for returns. Some even use the method of only refunding without returning. If the amount is large, they may be suspected of fraud and will bear corresponding adverse consequences based on the circumstances and amount, which is called criminal punishment. During the sales process, merchants can consider recording videos when shipping, including stating the need to verify returns and keep relevant evidence. Another possibility is that the platform needs to ensure fairness, impartiality, and transparency in handling complaints about returns, including complaints about merchants refusing returns. This can protect both the rights of consumers and the interests of operators. In recent years, the return rate of clothing e-commerce has remained high, and some clothing e-commerce companies have also come up with some strategies to avoid malicious returns. For example, what about the recent emergence of "super large hang tags"? What do ordinary consumers think? The reporter's investigation found that the return rate of Hanfu and Tang clothing is higher than that of other clothing varieties. Wang Meng, who has been running Hanfu for many years, has been troubled by frequent returns. After experiencing several situations of being worn out and returned, Wang Meng also changed to a large tag. Wang Meng told reporters that although hanging a large tag increases costs and reduces the number of clothes sold, it can at least effectively avoid clothing scrap and economic losses caused by "trying on and returning". Many consumers have expressed that only a small number of people return products after trying them on. Some tags on clothing are large in size and hard in texture, which to some extent avoids the problem of returns after "trial use" and "rubbing on", but also affects the comfort and overall visual effect of trying on clothes due to the damage to the fit. What else can be done to protect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers and merchants? The oversized tags on clothing are just a last resort for businesses to prevent malicious returns, and their effectiveness still needs to be tested. However, similar preventive measures may also pose certain difficulties for other ordinary consumers. What else can be done to protect the legitimate rights and interests of businesses while also safeguarding the interests of consumers? Legal expert Yue Yishan: Now we can see that the current system has a shortcoming, or rather a focus, on protecting the rights and interests of consumers, while not providing very strong protection for the rights and interests of operators. This may lead to imbalances in rules, including cost inversion and other shortcomings, giving individual consumers the opportunity to exploit rules, abuse civil rights, gain benefits, and harm the rights and interests of businesses. For the current situation, if we want to improve, it may require multiple departments and entities to work together, such as using technological means to improve and prevent, and using big data to identify consumers who frequently return goods or have been complained about by merchants for malicious returns. In other words, we can consider establishing a consumer credit file system or making appropriate restrictions on their future return behavior. It is possible to communicate between online trading platforms. Or in other words, after meeting certain conditions, the decision to return the product is left to the merchant to decide. In that case, it may create a certain deterrent or governance effect on consumers who abuse their right to return goods. Of course, this requires regulatory authorities to establish relevant rules, and multiple platforms to be able to connect their respective links or share information. It may also involve many issues such as consumer personal information protection. It may need to be established through legislation or administrative regulations. Of course, more importantly, it may still be necessary to advocate the principle of honesty and trustworthiness in society, including in daily life and consumer behavior. Whether it is operators or consumers, we must be honest and trustworthy, and not do anything that exploits loopholes to harm other rights and interests. (New Society)