(Yicai) March 15 -- Eighty-four percent of respondents to a survey conducted by Yicai said they had had their consumer rights and interests infringed by merchants, with the worst cases in the food, catering, and e-commerce sectors.

The quality of goods was selected as the biggest consumer trap, with 80 percent of the 1,000 individuals polled indicating that they had been affected, according to the results of the survey released today on World Consumer Rights Day.

Three-quarters pointed to false advertising as the second-biggest trap, while prices and after-sales service ranked third and fourth with 61 percent and 42 percent, respectively.

Seventy-eight percent had their rights breached by food suppliers and caterers, followed by e-commerce platforms at 69 percent, retail shopping at 61 percent, tourism and hospitality at 49 percent, and e-products at 27 percent.

False advertising infests e-commerce platforms. Ordinary shoppers are more likely to be misled by vendors of professional electronics that require a high level of knowledgeable about the products. For example, many sellers offer smartwatches that can measure blood glucose levels non-invasively, with some devices priced at several thousand Chinese yuan (equivalent to several thousand US dollars). But no such product exists anywhere in the world.

These devices mostly gauge glucose concentration through optical signals rather than by direct contact with the wearer, Zhao Xiaolong, a professor at Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center, a first-class tertiary hospital affiliated with Fudan University, told Yicai. 

They are subject to many external interferences and have limited reliability, Zhao noted, adding that no such device can generate data that can be used as the basis for clinical treatments. 

Two-thirds of survey respondents said they negotiate with sellers to solve issues and 61 percent have called the China Consumers Association’s 12315 helpline. Just over half seek the media’s help to bring issues to light, while 10 percent have taken vendors to court. 

Editors: Dou Shicong, Martin Kadiev