Recovering losses of 4.35 billion yuan! State Administration for Market Regulation releases 2025 consumer rights protection data

Today (the 15th), a reporter learned from the State Administration for Market Regulation that in 2025, market regulators across the country handled a total of 43.866 million consumer complaints, reports, and inquiries through the national 12315 platform, phone calls, and other channels, recovering 4.35 billion yuan in economic losses for consumers and effectively protecting their legal rights and interests.

The State Administration for Market Regulation introduced the following characteristics of consumer complaints and reports in 2025:

First-time complaints exceeded 20 million, with issues related to after-sales service and contracts being prominent

In 2025, market regulators nationwide received a total of 20.366 million complaints, a 9.3% increase year-on-year. The total number of complaints first surpassed 20 million, indicating that consumer awareness of rights protection continues to grow. Complaints about after-sales service have ranked first for three consecutive years, highlighting that some businesses do not sufficiently prioritize after-sales guarantees and fail to meet basic service demands. Regarding growth rate, contract issues increased by 40.3% year-on-year, making it the fastest-growing core complaint problem. Consumers mainly reported difficulties with refunds, opaque contract terms, “霸王条款” hidden in standard contracts, businesses not fulfilling obligations as agreed, and discrepancies between promotional promises and contract content.

Online shopping demands show new characteristics, with economic losses recovered exceeding 1 billion yuan

In 2025, the national 12315 platform received 15.067 million complaints and reports related to online shopping, a 14.3% increase year-on-year, accounting for 56.9% of total complaints and reports. Among these, complaints numbered 11.447 million, reports 3.62 million, recovering 1.07 billion yuan in economic losses for consumers, representing 24.6% of the total recovered losses.

The main issues involve after-sales service and product quality, which are the most frequently reported areas, with 3.486 million and 2.886 million complaints respectively, making up 42.3% of the total.

Additionally, price disputes during e-commerce shopping festivals are prominent, with core conflicts centered on: consumers paying deposits during pre-sale periods discovering lower prices during final payment or promotional peak times. Although platforms offer price protection services, consumers often face rejection when applying for price protection due to reasons such as link changes or different types of coupons.

Takeout demand fluctuates significantly, industry competition needs to become more rational

In 2025, platforms received 505,000 complaints and reports about takeout services, a 14.1% increase year-on-year. The main issues include food safety (262,000), after-sales service (63,000), contract issues (24,000), unfair competition (23,000), and quality problems (19,000), together accounting for nearly 80%.

In the third quarter, major platforms engaged in “subsidy wars” to attract users, leading to a surge in orders. However, service guarantees did not keep pace, resulting in increased demands. Complaints and reports increased by 23.8% year-on-year and 19.2% quarter-on-quarter, marking the period with the largest growth in complaints for the year.

In the fourth quarter, as subsidy policies receded and the market gradually “cooled down,” demand decreased by 22.8% quarter-on-quarter. The State Administration for Market Regulation stated that overall, consumer demands in the takeout industry fluctuate with market conditions, and industry competition should shift toward more rational and sustainable development.

“Charging anxiety” complaints are rising, service experience needs upgrading

In 2025, complaints and reports related to power banks reached 156,000, a 62.5% increase year-on-year. Issues mainly involve product quality, return disputes, shared power banks being difficult to borrow or return, and abnormal billing. Meanwhile, with the rapid increase in new energy vehicle ownership and expanding charging infrastructure, the quality of charging services is increasingly highlighted.

In 2025, complaints and reports involving EV charging infrastructure totaled 61,000, a 47.8% increase year-on-year. Problems include difficulty in refunding recharge balances, some charging station operators “running away” and disappearing, unclear charging standards, and inadequate customer service.

Jewelry consumption upgrades, with gold and jade becoming core complaint areas

In 2025, the platform received 380,000 jewelry-related complaints and reports, a 16.4% increase. Among these, gold jewelry (142,000) and natural jade (102,000) are the main focus areas, accounting for 87.9% of total jewelry complaints and reports, along with silver jewelry (45,000), alloy jewelry (28,000), and natural gemstones (17,000).

Consumers mainly report issues in three areas:

1. Some products have insufficient precious metal purity, substandard jade, or harmful substances exceeding safety limits;

2. “Fixed-price” gold jewelry lacks clear weight markings, with actual unit prices far above market gold prices, and undisclosed exchange restrictions;

3. E-commerce sales issues are prominent, accounting for 60% of jewelry complaints, involving false advertising, product mismatches, and “customization non-return” policies.

Rapid rise of smart consumption, with a disconnect between function promotion and user experience

In 2025, the platform received 152,000 complaints and reports related to smart devices, a 26.6% increase year-on-year. Leading categories include smartwatches (50,000), smart home devices (29,000), drones (19,000), smart accessories (18,000), and smart robots (17,000), together accounting for 87.5% of total. Drones, smart bands (10,000), and smart glasses (3,235) saw significant growth, with increases of 45.5%, 39.4%, and 37.7% respectively.

Consumers mainly report issues such as:

1. Overhyped “smart” labels, with actual functions limited to basic networking or remote control, failing to address real needs, leading to large expectation gaps;

2. Software problems like system upgrade failures, app crashes, poor compatibility, and data synchronization issues, often intertwined with hardware faults;

3. Lack of unified technical standards and quality benchmarks in emerging smart device fields, with incomplete after-sales systems and high thresholds for returns and exchanges.