The issuance of coupons is based on people's orders, merchants use AI to generate beautiful pictures to mislead consumers, and consumers who apply for price guarantees are "kidded"... The "2026 "618" Consumer Rights Protection Public Opinion Analysis Report" (hereinafter referred to as the "Report") recently released by the China Consumers Association shows that this year's "618" is stable and changes, and e-commerce competition has shifted from traditional price wars and traffic wars to competitions in technical capabilities and operational efficiency. But at the same time, in actual experience, there are still some problems that cause trouble to consumers.
Distributing coupons "watching people order dishes"
The "Report" pointed out that during the monitoring period, information about "pricing routines" accounted for 18.5% of complaints, with an average of 17,800 pieces per day. Consumers reported that the "first increase and then decrease" price routine, complicated coupon types, nested use conditions, and some of the discounts are not easy for users to know are more prominent problems.
According to media reports, consumer Mr. Wang posted a complaint on a social platform about a refund trap for V3 members of an e-commerce platform. Mr. Wang said that he planned to buy an Apple watch with a subsidy price of 1949 yuan. Before placing the order, he asked about the discount. The customer service recommended 68 yuan to become a V3 member to receive a large coupon, and made a clear promise that "if you have not received or used the coupon for the level gift pack, you can apply for a refund within 30 days."
After Mr. Wang became a member, the product price was still 1,949 yuan. His application for a refund of the membership fee was rejected. The customer service said that they had used the 200 yuan member exclusive coupon. However, Mr. Wang said that in fact, 1,949 yuan was the original price of the product with a tens of billions of subsidies. The platform only split the price into "original price of 2,149 yuan - membership coupon of 200 yuan", and the system automatically bound the coupon when placing the order, leaving consumers with no choice. As a result, the promise of "refundable if not used" could not be fulfilled at all.
In addition, there are also e-commerce platforms that issue coupons based on who chooses the dish. There are obvious differences in the denominations of coupons that different users can receive, and the rules for receiving them are not transparent. This differentiated pricing method not only violates the principle of fair trade, but also makes it difficult for consumers to judge the true price level, further exacerbating information asymmetry.
The China Consumers Association suggests that for price forms such as membership prices and coupons, it is recommended that relevant departments promote platforms to clarify rules and disclosure obligations to ensure that consumers are fully aware of the conditions and limitations of use before signing up for membership and receiving coupons, and to avoid designs such as default use and automatic binding to mislead consumers. At the same time, it is recommended to strengthen the research and standardization of differentiated pricing behaviors such as one thousand people and one thousand prices, guide and restrict practices that may damage consumers’ rights to fair transactions, and promote platform pricing to be more open, transparent, fair and reasonable.
AI fraud and scene fictitiousness have become new pain points
Compared with previous years, improper marketing methods this year have taken on new characteristics of technology and diversification, and AI fraud and scene fabrication have become new pain points.
According to media reports, currently, AI-generated product display pictures have been widely used by merchants. AI technology can make product pictures more beautiful and provide richer scenes, but it also widens the gap between the "seller's show" and the "buyer's show". The fabric texture, color restoration, and size ratio after AI beautification often do not match the actual product. "I was interested in a set of home clothes. The main picture looked soft and drapey. The fabric I got was thin and hard, and the color was gray. I later noticed that the promotional pictures were generated by AI." Ms. Chen, a consumer, complained that before, she placed an impulse order based on the beautiful AI promotional pictures, and fell into the trap of beautification and distortion.
In addition, scene falsification and identity endorsement falsification occur from time to time. According to media reports, one-stop services such as purchasing customized live broadcast backgrounds at low prices are available on e-commerce platforms. In a certain live broadcast room, the anchor was sitting in front of an apricot tree and live broadcast, with obvious cutout marks on the screen. The live broadcast shows that the location is Beijing, but the goods sold are shipped from Xi'an, which has no connection with the live broadcast address.
The "Report" pointed out that the false scene of freshly harvested products in the live broadcast room reflects that some businesses gain the trust of consumers through fictitious origins, and the bottom line of marketing integrity is breached. These new types of marketing chaos are difficult to identify and costly to obtain evidence, posing new challenges to traditional supervision methods.
In this regard, the China Consumers Association recommends that in response to new types of inappropriate marketing issues such as AI-generated marketing content, fake scene live broadcasts, and fake brand endorsements, we should speed up the improvement of relevant compliance guidelines, clarify the labeling obligations of AI-generated product promotion content, and require merchants to prominently label AI-generated main images, reviews, and other content to protect consumers’ right to know. Consolidate platform content review responsibilities, guide platforms to use technical means to strengthen the authenticity verification of live broadcast scenes and product promotion pages, and promptly discover and deal with false propaganda behaviors such as fictitious origins and fictitious partnerships.
When applying for insurance, I encountered a "kick ball"
During this year's "618" period, price guarantee disputes became the core pain point of after-sales service. According to media reports, Mr. Dong, a citizen, placed an order for a soymilk machine in the live broadcast room of an e-commerce platform. "The actual payment was 940 yuan at that time." He recalled, "In the live broadcast room, the anchor repeatedly emphasized that the price is guaranteed throughout the year, from '618' to 'Double 11'."
However, less than a month later, Mr. Dong discovered that the price of the soy milk machine had dropped. "I re-entered the purchase link and found that the price was 835 yuan."
So, Mr. Dong contacted the merchant and asked for a refund of the price difference, but he was rejected: "The merchant told me that the current low price is due to the price reduction of the goods by the platform. The price difference is not caused by the merchant's own price reduction, and it is not within the scope of the price guarantee. But I contacted the platform, and the platform customer service said that this is a 'merchant behavior' and the platform cannot interfere." Under the "football" between the two parties, Mr. Dong's request to make up the price difference has always been unable to be accepted.
The "Report" pointed out that in these cases, consumers encountered the dilemma of "kicking the ball" between merchants and platforms. This shirk of responsibility caused consumers' reasonable demands to reach a deadlock, exposing the disconnect between the promotion of bid guarantees and actual implementation, and unclear division of responsibilities.
In this regard, the China Consumers Association recommends that industry authorities should promote the formation of an industry consensus on price guarantee services, clarify the applicable scope, exclusions and operating procedures of price guarantees, and reduce the arbitrariness of rule interpretations. Guide the platform to optimize the price guarantee service experience, implement functions such as automatic price comparison by the system and automatic return of price differences, so as to reduce the discretionary space in the manual review process; for different reasons for price reductions such as platform subsidies and merchant concessions, the division of responsibilities should be clearly defined, and the platform should be promoted to establish a first-inquiry mechanism for after-sales disputes. Whether consumers contact the merchant or the platform, the first-inquiry party should first accept the case and coordinate the resolution, and must not pass the buck.
