(Yicai Global) March 15 -- Almost 80 percent of consumer disputes in China were about issues that happened online last year, mainly because of the rapid development of e-commerce platforms.

More than 42 percent of the 1,000 people Yicai Global polled in a consumer rights survey said their rights and interests were infringed by businesses in 2022. Among them, 79.5 percent of the incidents happened online and 19.5 percent offline.

With regards to the specific causes of online cases, 71 percent of the people surveyed said their problem had involved fake advertising, while 67 percent responded that commercial fraud was the issue. Nineteen percent had trouble with service quality, and 15 percent with the quality of goods.

Regarding offline cases, 68 percent brought up service quality issues and 63 percent price-related issues. Thirty-three percent were embroiled in fake advertising cases, and 20 percent in commercial frauds and after-sales problems.

Based on the results of the survey, fake advertising and commercial fraud were the issues most encountered by consumers online and offline last year.

More than half of the consumers claiming to have had their rights and interests infringed said that the apps or online platforms where they shopped had charged them hidden fees.

Logistics is a crucial element of online consumption. Yicai Global’s survey showed that more than 60 percent of the people experienced issues such as broken goods, slow transportation, and difficult refund and compensation negotiations.

Last month, refund issues ranked first in China, accounting for nearly 31 percent of the country’s total consumer complaints, according to data from 315.100ec.cn, a platform that mediates online consumer disputes. Online fraud cases ranked second at 12.4 percent, followed by issued with goods quality at 10.8 percent.

Editors: Shi Yi, Futura Costaglione