The China Consumers' Association yesterday proposed a guideline for protecting consumers' rights and called on national enterprises to voluntarily abide by it.

Dong Jingsheng, the association's vice-secretary-general, introduced the Consumer Rights Protection and Corporate Social Accountability Guideline at the Forum of Harmonious Consumption and Corporate Social Accountability yesterday in Beijing.

Forty-six enterprises, including China Mobile, China Telecom, China Life Insurance, Haier, TCL, Amoi, Meng Niu Dairy, Pepsi-Cola, Nestle, Sony, Panasonic, Carrefour and Unilever, responded positively on hearing the guideline.

They agreed to a 10-point plan to protect consumers' rights, which promises: honest and fair dealing; truthful advertisements; reasonable pricing; standardized and fair contracts; fair market competition; products that are safe and of good quality; timely and convenient after-sales service; patient acceptance of consumers' complaints and a commitment to solving disputes; respect for and protection of consumers' privacy; education on reasonable consumption; environmentally-friendly and energy-saving production methods.

Mu Jianhua, the association's vice-president and secretary-general, said at the forum that there were still many problems that needed to be addressed, such as the widespread violation of consumers' rights, ubiquitous fake and shoddy products, inadequate legislation on consumers' rights protection, a defective market monitoring system and consumers' own lack of awareness of their rights.

"A lack of honesty and social accountability among enterprises are the main contributors to the inharmonious consumption environment," Mu said.

"We have called for enterprises to actively respond to our proposal by shouldering more social accountability and better protecting consumers' legal rights and interests."

Li Yiping, an economics professor at the Renmin University of China, said protecting consumers' rights was also protecting enterprises' rights.

"Protecting consumers' rights and adopting corporate social accountability is an inevitable stage in an enterprise's development," Li said.

(China Daily March 16, 2007)