Tsai Center Workshops in Shenzhen Focus on Consumer Protection

In January 2017, the Paul Tsai China Center co-hosted a full day workshop in Shenzhen with the Center for Public Regulation and Policy of Shenzhen University Law School on consumer protection regulation and consumer public interest litigation. Representatives of the Market Supervision Bureau of the Shenzhen Administration of Industry and Commerce and the Shenzhen Consumer Association, as well as Professor Ying Feihu and other faculty members of the Shenzhen University Law School, attended the workshop.

China made major revisions to its national Consumer Rights Protection Law in 2013. Experts at the event emphasized that it is important for local governments to develop regulations which not only implement the national law, but also address emerging consumer protection challenges such as privacy protection and online fraud. The workshop was part of a collaborative research project between the Center and Shenzhen Law School to support the development of consumer protection regulations in Shenzhen.

At the workshop, officials from the Shenzhen Market Supervision Bureau shared their regulatory practice and enforcement strategies of consumer protection laws. The Shenzhen Consumers Association also briefed their efforts in product recalls and product testing. The Center’s Senior Fellow Su Lin Han worked with U.S. experts to share U.S. experience in administrative enforcement against fraudulent and deceptive practices, food and drug safety enforcement, and case studies of citizen suits against unsafe consumer products. U.S. experts participating in the workshop included: Professor David Vladeck, Georgetown University Law Center and formerly Director of FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection; Mary Pendergast, President of Pendergast Consulting and formerly Deputy Commissioner of the FDA; and Aaron Colangelo, Co-Litigation Director of the National Resources Defense Council.