Research On The System Of Consumer Civil Public Welfare Lawsuit

According to the dual public interest litigation theory,the public interest litigation is divided into civil public interest litigation and administrative public interest litigation.Consumer civil public interest litigation is one of the types of civil public interest litigation.It refers to the litigation system in which a specific subject files a civil lawsuit to the court for violating the public interest in the field of consumption and requests the court to investigate the liability of the offender.When defining the scope of cases applicable to consumer civil public interest litigation,the essential requirements should be to damage the public interests of society,and the form requirements should be to infringe the interests of an unspecified majority.The value of consumer civil public interest litigation is reflected in the following aspects: it is conducive to protecting the rights and interests of consumers,safeguarding market economy order,and making up for the lack of administrative law enforcement.In terms of the litigants of consumer civil public interest litigation,the United States has endowed the litigants with the right to Sue for various types of public interest litigation,such as individual citizens,consumer organizations and administrative organs.Germany and Taiwan did not make the groups that filed civil public interest litigation of consumption specific,but set some conditions to make the groups with these conditions enjoy the right of action.In terms of the claim for damages,Germany and Taiwan adopt the mode of determined empowerment,and organizations authorized by a certain number of consumers can file a claim for damages.The second order litigation mode in France and Japan not only avoids the infringement of consumers' physical claim right,but also helps to restore the damaged consumers' interests.Germany's lawsuit of skimming illegal gains has a complementary function in avoiding operators from benefiting from illegal behaviors.Chinese consumer civil public interest litigation mainly has the following problems: the narrow scope of the litigation subject,the lack of deterrent force of the type of litigation claim,the imperfect prelitigation procedure and litigation cost rules.By drawing lessons from foreign experience and summarizing China's practical experience,we should improve China's consumer civil public interest litigation system from the following aspects: expand the scope of the subject of prosecution,give other consumer organizations and individual citizens the qualification of plaintiff,but should not give administrative organs the qualification of plaintiff;To add the types of claims such as damage compensation,action for confirmation,and action for omitting illegal gains;To strengthen the function of the prelitigation procedure,the procuratorial organ urges the administrative competent authorities to perform their duties,and the consumer organization and the operator who will be the defendant to negotiate the prelitigation mechanism;We will improve the rules on litigation costs by waiving the fees for accepting cases or collecting fees on a piece-by-piece basis,and bring public interest litigation into the scope of legal aid and develop the system of public lawyers.