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

(Source: Qianlong.com)

According to the State Administration for Market Regulation, in 2025, market regulators nationwide handled a total of 43.866 million consumer complaints, reports, and inquiries through the 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 reported that consumer complaints and reports in 2025 showed the following characteristics:

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

In 2025, market regulators nationwide received a total of 20.366 million complaints, a 9.3% increase year-on-year, with the total complaints surpassing 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 complaint category. Consumers mainly reported difficulties with refunds, opaque contract terms, hidden “霸王条款” (unfair terms) in standard contracts, merchants not fulfilling obligations as agreed, and discrepancies between promotional promises and contract content.

New trends in online shopping complaints, with economic losses recovered exceeding 1 billion yuan

In 2025, the 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, 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.

The main issues involve after-sales service and product quality, which are the most frequently reported problems, with 3.486 million complaints and 2.886 million reports, together accounting for 42.3%.

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 changed product links or different coupon types.

Noticeable fluctuations in food delivery complaints, industry competition needs to become more rational

In 2025, the platform received 505,000 complaints and reports about food delivery, 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% of complaints.

During 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 peak period of demand growth for the year.

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

Rising “charging anxiety” complaints, service experience needs upgrading

In 2025, complaints and reports related to power banks reached 156,000, a 62.5% increase year-on-year, mainly involving product quality issues, return disputes, shared power bank borrowing and returning difficulties, and abnormal billing. Meanwhile, with the rapid increase in new energy vehicle ownership and expanding charging infrastructure, the quality of charging services has become increasingly problematic.

In 2025, complaints and reports concerning EV charging infrastructure totaled 61,000, a 47.8% increase year-on-year. Key issues include difficulties with refunding recharge balances, some charging station operators disappearing or going offline, lack of transparency in charging standards, and unresponsive customer service.

Jewelry consumption upgrades, gold and jade become core complaint areas

In 2025, jewelry-related 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).

Consumers mainly report issues in three areas: first, some products have insufficient precious metal purity, inferior quality jade, or harmful substances; second, “one-price” gold jewelry often lacks clear weight markings, with actual prices far exceeding market gold prices and undisclosed exchange restrictions; third, problems with online sales channels are prominent, involving false advertising, product mismatches, and “no returns on custom orders,” accounting for 60% of jewelry complaints.

Rapid rise of smart consumption, disconnect between marketing and user experience

In 2025, the 12315 platform received 152,000 complaints and reports about 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 making up 87.5% of total. Growth was particularly high for drones, smart bands (10,000), and smart glasses (3,235), with increases of 45.5%, 39.4%, and 37.7%, respectively.

Main consumer concerns focus on: first, some products overhype the “smart” label but only offer basic connectivity or remote control functions, failing to meet real needs, leading to expectations gaps; second, issues like system upgrades failing, app crashes, poor compatibility, and data sync problems often occur alongside hardware faults; third, the lack of unified technical standards and quality benchmarks in emerging smart device fields, along with underdeveloped after-sales systems and high thresholds for returns and exchanges, are prominent issues.