Research On The Direct Protection Of Consumer Interests In The Anti-Unfair Competition Law

The introduction of consumer elements eliminates the constraints of completive relations’ relativity.The competitive relations regulated by the Anti-Unfair Competition Law have thus been extended to the compound competitive relations formed among business operators,competitors and consumers.And so,consumer interests are divided into direct interests which take the right to know and the right to choose as the connotation,and indirect interests in the form of consumer welfare.The direct protection mode of consumer interests has been established,based on the institutional demand of the reform of production mode for direct protection on consumer interests and the dual framework of consumer protection and business operator protection established by China’s Anti-Unfair Competition Law.Consumer interests play a role as the standard to judge the unfair competition behaviors in the Anti-Unfair Competition Law.Therefore,it is necessary to build the general consumer image,under this premise,consumer interests can be accurately defined.Consumer interests in the Anti-Unfair Competition Law are respectively reflected in the general regulation of unfair competitive behaviors and the regulation of specific types of unfair competitive behaviors by the Anti-Unfair Competition Law,and respectively presented as false or misleading business propaganda,unfair prize sales and network behaviors of unfair competition stipulated in paragraph 2 of Article 2,and Article 8,10 and 12 of the Anti-Unfair Competition Law.In regulating these unfair competitive behaviors,consumer interests become the consideration element of whether these behaviors are accountable or not.The protection mechanism of direct protection on consumer interests may include two aspects: administrative control and judicial protection.Integrating the consumer interest standard into the administrative discretion benchmark is the efficiency advantage to give full play to administrative of control means,and a feasible way to directly protect consumer interests.Based on the pursuit of fair value,the realistic needs of the protection of consumer interests and the internal requirements of the normative system of the Anti-Unfair Competition Law,consumers should be entitled the right to sue,but the said right to sue here may not be brought by individual consumers.In order to safeguard the interests of consumers,the mode of "public interest litigation+ class action" may be chosen to together solve the balance between the protection of consumer interests in the overall sense and the right of individual consumers to request judicial adjudication,as well as the problem of whether the litigation subject is qualified or not.