“Because I wanted to use a filter, I downloaded a photo editing app. The software page showed ‘free trial for seven days, automatic renewal of 98 yuan upon expiration, and can be canceled at any time.’ I thought it was free within seven days of activation, and there would be no charge if I canceled during the period. , as a result, the one-year membership fee of 98 yuan was directly deducted.” Ms. Wu from Zhengzhou, Henan Province encountered such a troublesome thing not long ago, “What is this free trial? It is obviously a one-year membership that will give you 7 days.”
Ms. Wu felt cheated and went to the app’s customer service to apply for a refund. The customer service said she could not refund the money because she had already used the app. “I will never believe in free trials anymore. They are all playing word games.”
At present, “7-day free trial” and “1 yuan for 7 days” have become important means for many App software to attract users. However, a reporter from the “Rule of Law Daily” found that like Ms. Wu, there are not a few consumers who have fallen into the trap of “free trial” and “low-price enjoyment” of Apps: some default to monthly and annual packages after clicking on the free trial; some trial at a low price They also claimed to renew at a low price, but ended up renewing a high-priced package; some free trial periods were unclearly defined, and the second click after a period of time would default to paying a one-year membership fee.
Experts interviewed believe that to rectify the chaos of “free trial” and “low-price enjoyment” of Apps, multiple parties should form a joint regulatory effort, formulate more feasible implementation details, clearly stipulate the various obligations that merchants must perform when providing such services, and use Remind consumers in a conspicuous and easy-to-understand manner, while strengthening daily supervision and establishing convenient and efficient online dispute resolution channels to protect consumers’ legitimate rights and interests.
Clicking on the free trial was deducted
A lot of complaints on the complaint platform
A few days ago, when Ms. He from Chongqing checked her bill, she found an expense of 108 yuan. After careful combing, it was discovered that this expenditure came from the deduction of a beauty camera app.
“I didn’t even notice that I was charged 108 yuan before. Later I remembered that I had downloaded and used this App some time ago. At that time, the App page showed a ‘seven-day free trial’ activity, so I clicked on the trial. I didn’t expect that clicking on the free trial would mean After agreeing to become a member, 108 yuan was directly deducted 7 days later without any reminder.” Ms. He said, this is too deceptive.
Ms. Zheng from Hengyang, Hunan also encountered a similar situation. She told reporters that she “tried out” a video editing app for free, but was deducted 168 yuan from her one-year membership fee.
Ms. Zheng said that not long ago, she needed to use video editing software temporarily, and she searched for such an app in the mobile application mall, saying it had a “seven-day free trial.” After she clicked on the free trial, she canceled the trial and the “subscription” bound to it that day, but she was still deducted one year’s membership fee.
“I applied for a refund to the App’s customer service many times, but the customer service said that I could not get a refund after using the App. Later, I called 12345 to complain, and after coordination, the customer service agreed to refund.” Ms. Zheng said, it was clearly advertised as a free trial. , if you use it, you will be deducted. Isn’t this a lie?
“I saw that it was a 7-day free trial, but I was deducted 88 yuan. What’s the point of the free trial?” “Originally it was said to be a three-day free trial, but the money was deducted directly after subscribing. Not informing in advance is cheating consumers.” The free trial induces users, and after just clicking on the free trial, the fee is directly deducted, and multiple requests for refunds were rejected.”… Entering “free trial” on a third-party complaint platform, more than 19,000 complaints popped up. The reporter checked the latest Hundreds of complaints were found, and the vast majority complained about various apps.
Sorting through these complaints, the “free trial” chaos mainly focuses on three aspects: consumers are charged immediately after opening a free trial of the App. The free trial is actually “purchase a month to a year of services, and the first few days are free”; free trial Deductions are made in advance before the period is over. For example, a software advertises a free trial period of 3 days, but renews the membership as a member without any reminder on the second day of the free trial; when the trial period expires, it becomes an automatic renewal without any reminder. , such as opening a paid membership without the consumer’s knowledge after a 7-day free trial.
According to the experiences described by many interviewees, the reporter found that the process of being deducted money was very similar——
When downloading and logging into this type of App for the first time, the App will prompt benefits such as “Free trial for 3 days” and “7 days for 1 Yuan” on the homepage; some Apps will automatically pop up a “lucky egg” for a free trial when consumers are using it.
Regarding whether the free trial period will be automatically renewed after it expires, some apps have a very large font for “free trial”, while the font for “automatic renewal upon expiration” is very small and placed in an inconspicuous position; some apps are completely There is no reminder about automatic renewal upon expiration. Once the consumer receives the free trial benefit, the fee will be automatically deducted after the free trial expires.
There are also some apps that deduct different fees after different so-called free trial periods. For example, for a video editing app, if the user chooses to receive a 3-day free trial benefit, the fee will be automatically deducted at the rate of 35 yuan/month; if the user chooses to receive the 7-day free trial benefit, the fee will be automatically deducted at the rate of 298 yuan/year.
The reporter noticed that many interviewees admitted that they had fallen victim to the “free trial” trap of apps, but because the fees charged were not too high, rights protection was too labor-intensive, and some apps could not contact customer service, they ended up having to Consider yourself unlucky.
“After experiencing several unpleasant rights protections, I backed down and spent dozens of dollars to learn a lesson. Rights protection is too troublesome and I really don’t have the extra time and energy to ask for a refund, and some app customer service often answers questions incorrectly and shirks the answers. Responsibility cannot solve the problem and makes people very upset,” said Ms. Li from Chaoyang, Beijing.
“The services provided by the merchant and the money deducted are seriously inconsistent with the content of the promotion. They are suspected of using misleading content for promotion, which may constitute false propaganda. At the same time, if there is further evidence that the merchant deliberately informs consumers of false information or deliberately conceals the true situation, Inducing consumers to make wrong expressions of intention may also constitute consumer fraud, and consumers can also request punitive damages.” said Ma Yong, associate professor at the School of Economics and Law at Southwest University of Political Science and Law.
Payment reminder flashes by
Replacing flowers and trees is all a routine
There are many more pitfalls with “free trials”.
Mr. Tang, who lives in Fengtai, Beijing, recently had 40 yuan deducted from his account for a subscription project. After thinking about it for a long time, he remembered that he tried a dynamic wallpaper app two weeks ago. At that time, the App showed that there was a low-price activity of “1 yuan for 7 days” for new users. From the screenshot he provided, we can see that the page at that time looked like this: “1 yuan for 7 days” (in super large characters) and “Open immediately” (in large characters). In the middle, a quarter of the super large characters were used to mark “Press in 7 days.” It automatically renews at 11 yuan per month and can be canceled at any time.”
“I thought that 1 yuan for 7 days was very cheap. If you use it well, it is not expensive to spend 11 yuan for another month.” Mr. Tang said, but he did not expect that his “super membership package quarterly fee” would be directly deducted on March 13. “40 yuan.
“When did I become a super member?” Mr. Tang didn’t know why, so he contacted the App customer service. The other party initially dismissed it as “specifically focusing on display pages.” After Mr. Tang continued to ask, he sent a picture. There was a picture in the picture. The red arrow indicates, “Click ‘Member Activities’ on the upper right to see the complete screenshot.”
After clicking through the layers, Mr. Tang saw the message “1 yuan per week for the first two weeks, and automatic renewal of 40 yuan per quarter thereafter.” After repeated comparisons and even spending money to try again, Mr. Tang discovered that when he clicked “1 yuan trial for seven days” to pay, there was a small “payment instruction” in the payment process that showed “1 yuan per week for the first two weeks, and 40 yuan for the subsequent “Yuan automatically renews every quarter”, but the entire payment process almost flashes by, and some fonts are blocked, making it difficult for users to notice.
“It’s all a routine, using ‘big characters’ to attract attention, using ‘small characters’ to express more important information, and then visually substituting them.” Mr. Tang said, this is naked deception.
Experts interviewed believe that merchants use vague and incomplete statements to induce consumers to be charged without full knowledge, which violates consumers’ rights to know and choose.
“The contract conditions that consumers see are inconsistent with the contract conditions after jumping to the page. Moreover, the contract conditions are format clauses, and their core content flashes past when they are blocked, making it difficult for most consumers to see clearly and to attract attention. Just entering the payment page directly, consumers do not have time to understand the actual terms, which is suspected of defrauding consumers.” said Wang Tianfan, associate professor at Beihang University Law School.
Ms. Zhang from Zaozhuang, Shandong was charged 198 yuan by the “free trial” app. She told reporters that during the Spring Festival this year, she wanted to use the “puzzle” function of an App. The App’s page showed “free trial for three days, 198 yuan per year, and can be canceled at any time.” But as soon as she clicked on the trial, her payment was directly deducted.
Later, she remembered that she had used the “free trial” function of the app six months ago. At that time, she used the app to put together a picture and then immediately canceled the service. The whole process took less than 10 minutes.
“Three days of free trial. How to calculate this ‘three days’? Does it count as three days if you use it once, or can it be calculated cumulatively?” Ms. Zhang looked through the App usage agreement, and there was no explanation of the free trial. She wanted to negotiate with customer service Refund, but I can’t find the customer service phone number on the App. I can only provide opinions and suggestions through email and complaint box.
The reporter opened the service agreement and saw that the rules stated that “Once a member makes a successful purchase, it means that you have used the product.”
Searching for the App’s name on a third-party complaint platform, there were 163 complaints about the App’s customer service inaction and lack of customer service.
Ma Yong believes that during the two uses of the App, the slogan and button keys of the App have always remained the same – “three-day free trial”, and the meaning of the slogan has not been clearly explained. Based on the above signs, consumers have reason to believe that the second time they use the App should still be a free trial.
“The merchant failed to fulfill its prompting obligation. Because consumers have different meanings for clicking ‘trial’ and ‘subscribe’. When ‘subscribing’, it indicates that the consumer has formally concluded a contract. The merchant should distinguish between ‘trial’ and final’ “Subscribe” sets different links, and when the consumer clicks “Trial” and the trial period has expired, the merchant should provide a clear reminder.” Wang Tianfan said.
Clarify obligations and strengthen supervision
Significant way of marking instructions
The reporter found that App “free trials” often involve format terms, but some merchants do not include detailed explanations of free trials and low-price preferential plans in the format terms, and many consumers often do not read the format terms, leading to The “free trial” trap happens all the time.
In this regard, the interviewed experts believe that merchants should clearly and in detail explain the terms of the free trial and remind consumers in a conspicuous and easy-to-understand way.
In Ma Yong’s view, in order to fully explain and ensure that consumers are aware of the effect, merchants should clearly mark the explanation of the terms on the advertising page, product page, and payment page, rather than placing them in many consumer accounts. The reader will not read the format terms carefully, otherwise it will be a manifestation of the merchant’s inaction.
“Merchant should use reasonable means to remind consumers to pay attention to format clauses that have significant interests. If the requirement of ‘reasonable reminder’ is not met, consumers can claim that the clause does not constitute the content of the contract.” Wang Tianfan said.
Experts also pointed out that currently, our country’s laws and regulations have many provisions on automatic renewal and fewer provisions on free trials. Therefore, compared with automatic renewal, which usually revolves around core issues such as consent, how to notify, and how to cancel, regulating free trial services is more difficult.
Ma Yong analyzed that free trials and low-price enjoyment are relatively new marketing methods, and business strategies are complex, such as the length of the trial period, restrictions on rights during the trial period, conversion strategies after the trial period expires, etc. These details There are large differences between different merchants, and it is difficult to standardize them with unified standards. The law is lagging behind, and the formulation and regulation of relevant provisions are not yet complete enough.
Regarding how to regulate this chaos, Ma Yong believes that multiple parties should form a joint regulatory effort. Relevant departments should formulate more feasible implementation details for free trials and low-cost services, clearly stipulate the various obligations that merchants must perform when providing such services, and ensure that the provisions are clear and specific to facilitate daily supervision by law enforcement departments and safeguard the rights of consumers. Provide a solid basis.
“Relevant departments should strengthen the daily supervision of App payment links, publish typical cases to expose, and urge the platform to make timely rectifications; at the same time, establish a convenient and efficient online dispute resolution platform to provide consumers with low-cost and efficient non-litigation dispute resolution Channels.” Ma Yong said that it is necessary to continue to improve the construction of corporate self-discipline and credit systems, establish transparency principles and normative systems for automatic renewals, guide companies to proactively disclose trial terms in a transparent manner, and strictly prohibit misleading consumers.
“Consumers should also be cautious about ‘trialing’ and understand in detail the trial period specified by the merchant and the corresponding consequences before the trial. If you do not intend to continue using the App, you should ‘unsubscribe’ or ‘refuse to purchase’ in a timely manner. And merchants do not There should be more complicated steps and operations for consumers to choose to ‘opt out’ than to ‘subscribe.'” Wang Tianfan said.
Reporter Zhou Bin and trainee reporter Ding Yi
The original title is “I wanted to try it for free, but my one-year membership fee was deducted. Reporters investigated the “free trial” and “low-price enjoyment” chaos of the App”
2024-04-01 01:57:56
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