China Bettering the Consumer
http://www.economist.com/news/business/21599006-chinas-new-consumer-law-has-local-and-foreign-firms-worried-true-meaning-san-yao-wu


China plans to benefit consumers on March 15th with a new consumer law. This is probably one of the biggest reforms in the consumption sector in 20 years. Mainly it attempts to give a big advantage to consumer protection. Consumer protection is critical when it comes to a consumer purchasing because when a consumer knows a company is reliable, they will continue to make purchases from that company. This new reform states that consumers are able to take back purchases of goods within seven days of the purchase date. Even if the purchase came from an online retailer, the consumer has the right to send the company back the product for absolutely no reason at all. This reform in effect will cause an explosion in the consumption sector because consumers feel more safe making purchases then ever before.

With this new reform being put into place, consumer data will also be protected from misuse. They plan to accomplish this by permission will have to be sought out and purchased from the retailer for any commercial use of consumer data. Class-action lawsuits before this time were rare in China. These class-action lawsuits will become much easier to file protecting the consumer even more. The motivations for the law seem sincere towards expanding consumption. The government is more than ready to shift China's economy towards consumption-driven growth. Regulations protecting consumers should help improve their trust in retialers. A legal firm in China Max Xin Gu of K&L Gates also believes the law “is timed to come hand-in-hand with the anti-corruption campaign” presented by the President Xi Jinping. Both are aimed to help ordinary people benefit from the reform.

 China is finally beginning to catch up with the European Union’s standards of consumer rights. Pressure from Chinese citizens ignited the government to tighten standards. These standards greatly help the general population of China. Bettering pollution measures have also given edge to firms with the most advanced technology. This allows publicly owed firms to gain an advantage over privately owned firms. Many privately owned firms grow increasingly worried. An executive of grumbles states, “it’s a boatload of work and internal co-ordination to hit compliance.” The high risk of prosecution associated with this reform may cause entrepreneurs not to start new firms because they are unable to compete with established ones. In conclusion many privately owned foreign firms are just not ready for this reform.