In the past two years, the entertainment performance market has shown great vitality and vitality, and consumers' enthusiasm for watching performances continues to rise. However, consumer rights protection issues surrounding the entertainment performance market have also frequently arisen. Recently, the Jiangsu Provincial Consumer Rights Protection Committee conducted a special analysis of recent consumer complaints in the entertainment performance market.
According to the report, the recent hot spots for consumer rights protection are mainly problems such as "pillar tickets", "water injection" and "difficulty in refunding tickets" at concerts. From April 15 to May 6, there were more than 120,000 pieces of consumer rights protection information about entertainment performances. , Jiangsu Provincial Consumer Rights Protection Committee conducted detailed monitoring and analysis of these rights protection information.
Fu Zheng, Director of the Complaints Department of Jiangsu Provincial Consumer Rights Protection Commission: There are four main aspects of . The first is the high refund fees, and the same singer may have inconsistent refund fees in different cities, which will lead to some misunderstandings among consumers. The second is that in terms of performance quality, there is false propaganda or misleading consumers. The third is that in terms of performance ticket seats, some tickets may block the view and cause "pillar tickets". Fourth, the phenomenon of scalpers scalping votes exists, disrupting the order of our market.
"Pillar tickets" harm the rights and interests of consumers and the right to know should be protected.
There are many problems in the performance market. To sum up, there are mainly four aspects: "difficulty in refunding tickets", "false propaganda", "scalpers" and "pillar tickets" , let’s first focus on the issue of “pillar tickets” for concerts. What exactly are “pillar tickets”? How does it violate the rights of consumers?
This is a live video of a concert posted by a netizen on a social platform. There is a large pillar in front of the consumer's seat and the stage cannot be seen. The consumer said that these were two tickets purchased for 960 yuan. Unexpectedly When I went to the site, I discovered that they were all "pillar tickets."
Lei Yitian, a staff member of the Complaints Department of Jiangsu Provincial Consumer Rights Protection Commission: has concert tickets with large blind spots. In this case, the overall experience for consumers is not good. According to our legal provisions, this kind of situation where the field of view is seriously blocked should be of great interest to consumers.
Reporters learned that after learning about the situation, the relevant singers had taken the initiative to offer corresponding compensation to the fans who bought the pillar tickets. However, staff from the Jiangsu Provincial Consumer Protection Commission said that the ticketing platform did not clearly inform consumers of which seats may have blind spots or obstructions before selling tickets, which violated consumers' right to know.
Lei Yitian, a staff member of the Complaints Department of the Jiangsu Provincial Consumer Rights Protection Commission: When consumers pay their prices, they expect to receive services corresponding to the prices, but this kind of "pillar ticket" is actually based on what the consumers want. If the price paid does not match, consumers do not get a fair deal. As an operator, he should inform consumers in advance and protect consumers' right to know.
Audiences shout "ticket refund"
Concert "water injection" involves false publicity
In addition to pillar tickets, some consumers said that some concerts are also suspected of false publicity, which is the phenomenon of "water injection". In the early publicity of some concerts, the organizers used extensive propaganda to attract fans, but when it came to the actual performances, they adopted a "water platter" approach, allowing unpublicized performers to take up more performance time and consume a lot of money. The person feels "cheated".
As can be seen from the video posted by netizens on social platforms, at a concert held on April 30, there were constant calls for refunds. Many consumers reported that when buying tickets, they only saw three singers in this concert, but in the actual performance, there were also bands, performance groups and other people who had not been promoted in the early stage to "sprinkle water". The concert time was advertised as 135 minutes, while In fact, the three singers promoted in the early stage only sang for about 80 minutes, and they all had equipment problems of varying degrees during the performance, which affected the consumer experience.
Fu Zheng, Director of the Complaints Department of the Jiangsu Provincial Consumer Rights Protection Committee: recommends that relevant administrative departments strengthen the review of some front-end content during approval, and ensure that through supervision and guidance meetings or administrative guidance meetings, organizers and platforms are required to Their promotional pages match the quality and price of the actual content to protect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers.
The problem of "difficulty in refunding tickets" is more prominent. The refund rules are inconsistent.
Reporters learned that after this concert, some consumers had successfully refunded their tickets through complaints through channels. However, not all performances have uniform refund standards. Not all concerts can be refunded easily. The current difficulty in safeguarding rights in the entertainment performance market and the most common link in safeguarding rights is concentrated in the refund process before the performance.
Fu Zheng, Director of the Complaints Department of Jiangsu Provincial Consumer Rights Protection Commission: Organizers need to establish reasonable and stepped refund policies for the entertainment performance market. However, since refund policies are determined by the organizers, different concert organizers have different , so their refund policies may be inconsistent, and some even have a refund fee of 50% or 80%, which is unfair and unreasonable to consumers. Secondly, the same singer has different organizers in different cities, so the refund policies they have formulated are inconsistent, which will cause certain misunderstandings for our consumers who buy tickets. He does not know that refunds can be made for different performances. The fees will be inconsistent, so it is an infringement of their right to fair dealing.
According to reports, in order to avoid problems such as ticket scalping, real-name ticket purchase and admission are currently implemented at the concert, so tickets for the concert cannot be transferred or donated. Many concerts close the refund channel immediately after purchasing tickets. Even if the request is made many days before the performance and it does not affect secondary sales, refunds cannot be made. For some who agree to refund, the refund handling fee is as high as hundreds or even thousands of yuan. , forcing some consumers who really cannot be there to bear high economic losses.
Fu Zheng, Director of the Complaints Department of Jiangsu Provincial Consumer Rights Protection Commission: We found that organizers or operators often adopt a one-size-fits-all approach and do not give consumers the opportunity to make special choices. Some consumers are indeed affected by force majeure. The organizer should provide a friendly negotiation method to minimize the losses for us consumers.
It is recommended to improve the refund rules
To improve the consumption experience of entertainment performances
Industry insiders suggest that for problems such as "water injection in performances" and "difficulty in refunding tickets", on the one hand, in addition to strengthening the supervision of the entertainment performance market, on the other hand, we can also learn from the rules of other fields, so that The market rules for cultural and entertainment performances have become more complete.
Regarding the issue of refunds where consumer rights protection is concentrated, industry insiders said that closing the refund process or charging high handling fees that are much higher than the refund cost is a kind of "overlord clause". According to the "Consumer Rights Protection Law of the People's Republic of China" As well as the relevant provisions of the Civil Code of the People's Republic of China, any behavior that restricts consumers' rights and aggravates consumers' obligations through format clauses should be invalid clauses, while the rules for refunds, changes, etc. for train tickets are relatively scientific and reasonable.
Fu Zheng, Director of the Complaints Department of Jiangsu Provincial Consumer Rights Protection Committee: For , you can refer to the relevant rules of Railway 12306. At present, our railway has formulated unified ticketing rules across the country. There are 4 levels in total, and the highest refund fee is only 20% of the ticket price. This is well-documented for us consumers, and It can be seen clearly, so that we consumers can predict in advance before buying tickets. We hope that in the performance industry, we can explore a reasonable, scientific and unified refund rule that applies to the entire industry, which can protect the legitimate rights and interests of our consumers while not harming the legitimate interests of operators, and can truly stimulate the consumer vitality of the market.
Regarding the "water injection" of entertainment performance content, industry insiders suggest that prior supervision should be strengthened and industry authorities, organizers, performance platforms, etc. should take responsibility.If consumers encounter relevant problems, they should proactively report them to relevant departments, retain relevant evidence, and safeguard their own interests.
