Hei Mao Complaints has jointly released the "2025 Consumer Rights Protection White Paper" with Weibo Hot Topics for the seventh consecutive year. The white paper is based on data from Weirendian Research Institute, Sina Weibo Data Center, and Hei Mao Complaints, systematically organizing and analyzing the overall landscape of consumer rights protection in 2025 through a data report format. It effectively assists consumers in reviewing annual rights protection information and understanding the latest trends within the consumer rights industry.
Consumer rights-related information fluctuated throughout the year, with September seeing the peak volume. According to statistics from the Weirendian Research Institute, from January 1 to December 31, 2025, the volume of online information related to "consumer rights" exceeded 127 million entries, a year-on-year increase of approximately 22.1%. The online communication heat index reached 99.98.
The volume of consumer rights discussions remained high with fluctuations throughout the year. February was a low point, primarily due to dispersed public attention following the holidays. A significant climb occurred in March, driven by concentrated focus around the "315" consumer rights day. The volume receded somewhat mid-year, representing a periodic adjustment in attention. September reached the annual peak, influenced not only by concentrated consumer activity but also by the ongoing impact of the 2025 pre-made meal incident, which pushed consumer rights sentiment to strengthen again.
The Weibo platform continues to drive the optimization and upgrading of the consumer environment. In 2025, over 127 million pieces of information related to "consumer rights" were monitored. Weibo accounted for 22.16% of this total, establishing itself as a primary communication platform.
Throughout 2025, the total volume of rights protection and complaint-related posts on Weibo reached 47.6 million, with a readership of 975.76 billion and 2.022 billion interactions. The user base participating in rights protection and complaints exceeded 36.19 million. Weibo has become a core platform for consumers to safeguard their legitimate rights and interests and amplify public opinion, enabling widespread dissemination and efficient voicing of demands regarding consumer rights protection.
A review of hot consumer rights incidents on the Weibo platform, based on an analysis of 431 consumer-related Weibo hot search entries in 2025 by Hei Mao Complaints, categorizes the top three concerns for consumers as: live streaming commerce disputes, food safety issues, and irregularities in apparel and personal care.
Live streaming commerce disputes persist as China's online consumption continues to develop positively, with the live streaming e-commerce sector maintaining strong momentum. Data released by the Ministry of Commerce shows that national online retail sales reached 15.97 trillion yuan in 2025, a year-on-year increase of 8.6%. As an important derivative model of e-commerce, live streaming commerce has seen continuous expansion in scale in recent years, playing a significant role in driving online consumption growth. However, numerous problems associated with live streaming have become increasingly apparent. The "2025 'Double Eleven' Consumer Complaint Data Report," jointly released by Hei Mao Complaints and the Hei Mao Big Data Center, indicates that the Hei Mao Complaints platform received over 180,000 e-commerce complaints during the "Double Eleven" period, a nearly 23% increase from the previous period. Among these, complaints related to "live streaming commerce" amounted to 13,872, accounting for 7.54% of the total.
Food safety issues remain a focal point of social concern, directly impacting individual health. Analysis of complaints accepted by consumer associations nationwide in 2025, released by the China Consumers Association, shows that food-related complaints ranked third, showing a decrease compared to the previous year. However, related catering service complaints rose from third to second place. This suggests that basic food safety conditions have improved, while consumer demands are shifting towards high-quality services.
Irregularities in the apparel and personal care sector, a pillar of public consumption, consistently attract significant attention regarding market activity and rights protection trends. Statistics show that during the "Double Eleven" period, apparel sales accounted for 14.0% of comprehensive e-commerce platform sales, ranking third among categories, while personal care and cosmetics sales accounted for 8.2%, ranking fourth. The CCA's analysis further indicates that within specific product complaints, apparel-related complaints topped the list.
The Hei Mao Complaints platform recorded over 8.91 million valid complaints for the full year 2025, a year-on-year increase of 45.6%. As a comprehensive consumer service platform under Sina, Hei Mao Complaints integrates multiple dimensions including consumer dispute resolution, enterprise service quality data insights, consumer safety knowledge dissemination, tracking of hot consumer events, and live streaming discussions on lifestyle topics, providing comprehensive coverage of the entire consumer journey to serve users. By collaborating with government bodies, institutions, and media, it builds a cooperative ecosystem aimed at collectively enhancing the consumer environment. By the end of 2025, the platform's cumulative valid complaints exceeded 31.95 million, with over 80% receiving a response from the relevant enterprise and over 70% of disputes being resolved.
The top consumer complaint keywords on the Hei Mao Complaints platform for 2025 were "refusal of refund," "unresponsive customer service," "false advertising," and "unfair contract terms."
The share of complaints targeting shopping platforms rose by 0.84% year-on-year, ranking second. The Hei Mao Complaints platform currently covers various consumer sectors including financial payments, shopping platforms, food delivery and catering, entertainment and lifestyle, travel and accommodation, freight logistics, telecommunication services, education and training, beauty and apparel, automotive parts, and real estate and home furnishings. The financial payments industry received the highest volume of complaints, accounting for 35.56% of the total. Shopping platform complaints accounted for 20.45%, ranking second, followed by food delivery, travel, and entertainment and lifestyle.
Complaint volume for shopping platforms fluctuated, peaking during two major promotional periods. In 2025, complaint volume for shopping platforms showed a fluctuating trend overall. Influenced by major e-commerce promotions like "6·18" and "Double Eleven," complaint volumes peaked in June and November, respectively. From an industry perspective, the vast majority of complaints were concentrated on e-commerce platforms, with key issues including unresponsive customer service, substandard product quality, arbitrary cancellation of large-discount orders, and cumbersome refund processes.
Complaint volume in the food delivery and catering industry fluctuated with the market, reaching its annual peak in early July. In 2025, the food delivery and catering industry received over 670,000 complaints. With new entrants like JD.com and Taobao joining the fray, competition in the food delivery market intensified, sparking a closely watched "delivery war." The fluctuation in complaint volume was highly correlated with key competitive market events, peaking in early July. Customer complaints primarily focused on delivery delays, incorrect addresses, spilled meals, and foreign objects in food. Delivery riders, meanwhile, complained mostly about unreasonable order assignments and excessively harsh platform penalties.
Complaint volume in the travel and accommodation industry fluctuated, showing clear increases during holidays. The travel and accommodation industry received over 480,000 complaints in 2025. Complaint trends were closely tied to holiday periods, with noticeable increases around the Spring Festival, Labor Day, and National Day holidays. Common complaints regarding travel ticket bookings involved high fees for changes and cancellations, along with frequent bundling of paid items like insurance and coupons. For hotel bookings, consumers often reported significant discrepancies between the actual room type, facilities, and cleanliness compared to advertised images, with many bookings being non-refundable. For ride-hailing services, passengers commonly cited discrepancies between actual fares and estimates, and shared rides being substituted for expected solo rides. Drivers, on the other hand, reported issues like unfair penalties and unrewarded incentives.
Complaint volume in the entertainment and lifestyle industry showed a fluctuating upward trend, with frequent collective complaints in areas like music and trendy toys. The entertainment and lifestyle industry received over 410,000 complaints in 2025. Several collective complaints with significant social impact occurred during the year. For example, on May 18, QQ Music's alteration of rankings after the deadline in a single-song charting activity sparked dissatisfaction, involving over 2,800 complainants. On July 2, the forced cancellation of tickets for Jay Chou's Jinan concert purchased via Maoyan Performances involved over 560 complainants. On August 28, Pop Mart's new product release led to automatic order cancellations due to system payment issues, involving nearly 900 complainants. Common complaints centered on non-refundable event tickets or high cancellation fees, and automatic renewals of audio-video software subscriptions without sufficient reminder.
The economic situation remains stable with progress, adding momentum to the consumer market. The 2026 National People's Congress sessions explicitly prioritized boosting consumption and expanding domestic demand. The government work report proposed arranging 250 billion yuan in ultra-long-term special treasury bonds to support consumer goods trade-in programs and further expand domestic demand through coordinated fiscal and financial measures. Consumption is a vital link in smoothing economic circulation and a key support for enhancing development resilience. Continuously optimizing the consumer environment and effectively protecting consumer rights helps boost consumer confidence, unleash consumption potential, and inject stronger momentum into high-quality economic development.
Multi-party collaboration is key to promoting continuous improvement in the consumer environment. Taking the issue of airlines "locking" seats as an example, the Hei Mao Complaints platform received numerous related reports. CCTV dedicated a segment to exposing this practice, confirming that comfortable seats like those in the front of the economy cabin were often locked. On November 26, 2025, the Jiangsu Provincial Consumer Council initiated a special investigation, summoning 10 airlines for talks, clarifying that their actions potentially infringed upon consumer rights and demanding self-correction within a deadline. On January 29, 2026, the China Air Transport Association released a draft group standard for the "Rules on Seat Reservation by Public Air Transport Enterprises (Exposure Draft)."
Hei Mao Complaints collaborates with various parties to safeguard consumer rights. Hei Mao Complaints actively encourages enterprises to proactively assume their social responsibility in protecting consumer rights and improving service quality. It also partners with authoritative institutions and media to amplify consumer voices and invites lawyers to provide professional legal interpretations for consumers, offering comprehensive protection of consumer rights.
In the future, the Hei Mao platform will continue to leverage the convenience and efficiency of its internet platform products to provide broader and higher-quality services for all parties involved. It is committed to solving more practical problems for consumers and delivering an enhanced consumption experience across multiple areas, including consumer reference information, consumer data services, and legal assistance.
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