Paper Sample on Consumer Protection in E-Commerce: Return & Refund Policies

Introduction

The expansion of online marketing has been mainly facilitated by an increase in internet use across the world. This is deemed to having in turn, led to the growth of e-commerce. What is termed as e-commerce has been deliberated to include several transactions that have been through tablets, computers, and other telephone devices? E-commerce can also be described as the sale of goods and services, facilitated by computer network methods specifically designed to receive various orders from customers and clients. In this, several countries tend to specialize in managing different transactions and, thus, ensure that the services rendered tend to satisfy the parties involved. As a result of this advancement, there has been a need to protect the different parties from the infringement that may occur during e-commerce (Kolsaker & Claire, 2002). This resulted in the adoption of the Consumer Protection Act (CPA). The Act tends to contain several laws that mainly aims at protecting and safeguarding the rights and interest of various consumers across the different sector that can, in turn, lead to the facilitation of trade fair (Choi et al., 2004). Therefore, such is essential in ensuring that the different businesses do not engage in fraud practices by penalizing and shutting down the businesses deliberated to violate the Act (Goldsmith et al., 2000).

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According to Wood, there has been an expansion in the global economy of consumers who adopt the use of online shopping (Wood & Neal, 2007). Those shoppers found within the urban areas have adopted the use of internet connections, which has increased the number of those individuals who are deliberately using platforms such as Facebook, which has led to great reforms in the e-commerce sector. Therefore, drafting the laws relating to e-commerce has taken place and is reviewed specifically by the Council of Ministers (Alboukrek, 2003). Alboukrek suggest that there is always a need to protect the rights of various consumers (Alboukrek, 2003). In this case, it is important to try and figure out some return policies that can help in the development of the economy, even where there are no cases of formal rules, especially within China and the USA.

Return Policy

The policy relating to return can be used to facilitate the payment of regulations; this is according to the study conducted by Xu. In this, the researcher talks about the challenges consumers face, especially during the payment of the products deemed unfair when dealing with the contract terms and in the payment of online security. There are also privacy issues that come in whenever there are non-monetary transactions when dealing with financial situations. There are also scenarios where the third parties tend to make payments in their names whenever their financial statements have leaked out.

In a country like China, it is important to note that even without the appropriate infrastructures, e-commerce is deliberated to try and flourish. For instance, an industry known as TaoBao started in China within the rural villages and is currently considered to have grown to become one of the multimillion-dollar venture companies. There has been lots of research conducted on the various consumer-driven economy and, as such, has indicated the existence of key drivers that can facilitate the boost in e-Commerce. The research is mainly considered to have been conducted in regions where laws and regulations have been enacted. The consumer protection board is deliberated as an agency that deals primarily with various consumers' complaints to prevent them from being exploited by different sellers from different areas. There has been a guideline provided by the United Nations that has adopted different directions that can help in the protection of various consumers. In this, members of the State are mandated to provide and maintain adequate infrastructure, which can support win the process of implementing and monitoring the various consumer laws.

In the development of consumer protection portfolios, the Department dealing with Consumer Affairs is mandated with this responsibility in India. However, within both South Africa and New Zealand, there tend to be Ministries that are tasked with the role of ensuring consumer protection (Protection, 2019). In this, there are developed agencies that facilitate consumer protection within a country such as New Zealand and are found within the Ministries deliberated to ensure that there are innovation and employment of various individuals. In a country such as Brazil, however, there is the Secretaria Nacional Do Consumidor (SENACON), which mainly aims at ensuring protection among various individuals living in Brazil. In Thailand, there is also the Consumer Protection Board, which is deemed o having been established from the established Consumer Protection Act of 1979 (Protection, 2019). Apart from that, there is also the Chinese Consumer Association, deemed as a quasi-Government organization that tends to lack individual consumer members.

Regrets Rights of Consumers in Cambodia

The just amended Law relating to the Law of the people of China dealing with the protection of the Rights and Interests of various consumers is deemed to having been implemented in 2014. The Law is also deliberated to having received a wider publication because it was the first amendment law over the past 20 years (Manyika et al., 2011). In the revision of the Law, there was also the provision of an online shopping majorly dwelling on "right to regret" that is deliberated to grant the various consumers the right of returning the goods bought through the use of an online shopping seven days after getting the receipts without stating the reason as to why the goods are being returned.

In western countries, such rights relating to regrets are also known as the cooling-off period. Such rights are deemed to give the consumers the power to terminate the contracts unilaterally with any business operators (Manyika et al., 2011). Therefore, such tends to protect various consumers from suffering by ensuring that there is information asymmetry, especially whenever there are any transactions. There is no excessive judicial inclination despite the fact the consumers tend to be protected via Consumer Law, which provides no room for the bargaining powers of various consumers. There are, however, several scopes that tend to limit the right to regret in practice. Firstly, according to Article 25, the right to regret is considered to have some exceptions in which the right tends not to be available (Manyika et al., 2011). The right does not imply tailor-made goods, audio-visual products, fresh and perishable goods, and the delivered newspapers and the periodicals. Secondly, Article25 is deliberated to provide a saving clause: "return of certain goods shall not apply to the commodities as determined like the products as stated by the consumer during the time of purchase. Thirdly, Article 25 provides that the cost of returning the goods shall be catered for by the consumers unless there are scenarios where there was an agreement made by the consumers and the business operators. Such is considered to limit the abuse of the right to regret by different individuals.

Despite all the laws relating to the right to regret, the way to exercise this right is still believed to be unclear. In this, the Consumer Law is considered not to provide some mode of exercise that will make the application of this right easy. In online business, the right to regret is believed not to be explicit as the consumers tends to complete the business with the operators through the use of the internet (Manyika et al., 2011). China's online shopping is considered to be in rapid growth, even though consumer regulations are lagging. Therefore, adoption of amendment laws will protect the various consumers dealing with the online shoppi1nf as well as try and facilitate the establishment of a fair-trade within the online market. Therefore, this paper will discuss the chronological cases in China relating to regret rights and the USA. It further explains how the different rulings were made by different judges in the different cases presented.

Conclusion

Different individuals' knowledge of the concurrent sale of things on the internet has led to the growth of several companies deemed as both small and large enterprises. There are also those entrepreneurs who are deliberated to sell their goods both domestically and internationally without seeing any need to open any multinational chain that would allow them to gain access to the competitive digital World (Manyika et al., 2011). In this, exponential growth in e-commerce has been seen as a subject in whom several countries try to adopt strong governing bodies, which can enable them to try and support any changes relating to the return rights of the consumers. There has also been a need for the various policymakers to attempt and recognize the different phenomenon and come up with a framework that can facilitate the use of the internet in an attempt to maximize online shopping (Manyika et al., 2011).