State Administration for Market Regulation: In 2025, Market Regulation Departments Nationwide Recovered 4.35 Billion Yuan in Economic Losses for Consumers

CCTV News: According to the State Administration for Market Regulation, 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.

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

• Consumer complaints exceeded 20 million for the first time, 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 complaints surpassed 20 million for the first time, indicating a continued rise in consumer awareness of rights. Complaints about after-sales service have ranked first for three consecutive years, highlighting some merchants’ insufficient attention to after-sales guarantees and their failure to meet basic service demands. Contract issues grew by 40.3% year-on-year, making them the fastest-growing core problem, mainly involving difficulties in refunds, opaque contract terms, “霸王条款” hidden in standard contracts, merchants 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 12315 platform received 15.067 million online shopping complaints and reports, a 14.3% increase year-on-year, accounting for 56.9% of total complaints and reports. Among these, 11.447 million were complaints and 3.62 million reports, recovering 1.07 billion yuan in economic losses for consumers, representing 24.6% of total recovered losses.

• Regarding issues, after-sales service and quality problems are the two most reported areas, with complaints of 3.486 million and 2.886 million respectively, accounting for 42.3% combined.

• 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 peaks. Despite platform price protection services, consumers often face rejection when applying for price protection due to reasons like link changes or different coupon types.

Delivery service demands fluctuate significantly, industry competition needs to return to rationality

• In 2025, platforms received 505,000 delivery complaints and reports, a 14.1% increase year-on-year. 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% of complaints.

• In the third quarter, major platforms engaged in subsidy wars to attract users, leading to a surge in orders. However, service quality could 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 highest growth period of the year.

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

“Charging anxiety” demands rise, 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.

• Complaints 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 disappearing (“跑路”), opaque charging standards, and unresponsive customer service.

Jewelry consumption upgrades, gold and jade become core complaint areas

• In 2025, jewelry complaints and reports reached 380,000, 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).

• Consumer issues mainly focus on three aspects: first, some products have insufficient precious metal purity, substandard jade, or harmful substances; second, “one-price” gold jewelry does not clearly indicate weight, with actual unit prices far exceeding market gold prices, and undisclosed exchange restrictions; third, issues with online sales channels are prominent, involving false advertising, product mismatches, and “customization non-return” policies, accounting for 60% of jewelry complaints.

Rapid rise of smart consumption, disconnect between function promotion and user perception

• In 2025, the 12315 platform received 152,000 complaints and reports related to smart devices, a 26.6% increase. 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%. Growth was notable in drones, smart bands (10,000), and smart glasses (3,235), with increases of 45.5%, 39.4%, and 37.7% respectively.

• Consumer complaints mainly focus on: overhyped “smart” labels with limited actual functions like basic connectivity or remote control, leading to expectation gaps; software issues such as failed system updates, app crashes, poor compatibility, and data sync problems; and the lack of unified technical standards and quality norms in emerging smart device fields, with incomplete after-sales systems and high thresholds for returns and exchanges.