Over 26 million consumer complaints and reports were received nationwide in 2025, recovering economic losses exceeding 4 billion yuan.

According to the official WeChat account of the State Administration for Market Regulation “Market Talk New Words,” in 2025, the national market regulation departments handled a total of 43.866 million consumer complaints, reports, and inquiries through the nationwide 12315 platform, phone calls, and other channels (complaints and reports: 26.46 million, a 9.8% increase year-on-year). Among these, complaints numbered 20.366 million, up 9.3%; reports totaled 6.094 million, up 11.4%; inquiries reached 17.406 million. These efforts helped recover 4.35 billion yuan in economic losses for consumers, effectively safeguarding their legal rights and interests. The main features are summarized in ten points:

1. Consumer complaints exceeded 20 million for the first time, with prominent issues in after-sales service and contracts

In 2025, the total number of complaints handled nationwide reached 20.366 million, a 9.3% increase, surpassing 20 million for the first time, reflecting growing consumer awareness of rights. The main issues include after-sales service (5.347 million), product quality (3.972 million), food safety (2.385 million), and contract issues (2.102 million), accounting for 26.3%, 19.5%, 11.7%, and 10.3% respectively. After-sales complaints have ranked first for three consecutive years, highlighting some merchants’ insufficient emphasis on after-sales protection and failure to meet basic consumer service demands. The fastest-growing core issue is contract disputes, with a 40.3% increase year-on-year, mainly involving difficulties in refunds, opaque contract terms, hidden “霸王条款” (abusive clauses), merchants not fulfilling commitments, and discrepancies between promotional promises and contract content.

2. Reports exceed 6 million, with significant decline in trademark violations

In 2025, market regulation departments verified 6.094 million reports, an 11.4% increase. The main reported issues include violations of consumer rights (1.303 million), unfair competition (0.908 million), illegal advertising (0.905 million), food safety violations (0.739 million), and product quality violations (0.498 million), collectively accounting for 70% of reports. The rapid growth is seen in violations of consumer rights (31.4%), product quality violations (25.8%), and online transaction violations (16.4%). Trademark violations decreased significantly by 9.4%, with 175,000 cases, reflecting strengthened enforcement of intellectual property rights in recent years.

3. Daily consumer goods demand concentrates, service complaints lead in growth

In 2025, complaints about goods totaled 13.2 million, an 8.1% increase, representing 64.8% of all complaints. Service complaints reached 7.166 million, up 11.7%, accounting for 35.2%. Food (3.446 million), clothing and footwear (1.685 million), household items (1.2 million), transportation tools (713,000), and communication products (708,000) ranked top among goods complaints, with respective shares of 26.1%, 12.8%, 9.1%, 5.4%, and 5.4%. Among items with over 500,000 complaints, communication products, computers (517,000), transportation tools, household items, and home appliances (671,000) showed rapid growth, increasing by 26.2%, 24.1%, 22.2%, 18.8%, and 13.7% respectively.

Service complaints are led by catering and accommodation (1.191 million), sales services (762,000), internet services (697,000), education and training (652,000), and cultural entertainment and sports services (635,000). Complaints over 100,000 include leasing services (198,000), intermediary services (122,000), maintenance and repair services (216,000), with rapid growth rates of 31.6%, 30.6%, 24%, and 24%, respectively.

4. Online shopping demands show new features, with economic losses recovered exceeding 1 billion yuan

In 2025, the 12315 platform received 15.067 million online shopping complaints and reports, a 14.3% increase, accounting for 56.9% of total complaints and reports. Of these, complaints numbered 11.447 million, reports 3.62 million, recovering 1.07 billion yuan for consumers, representing 24.6% of total recovered losses. The online shopping demands exhibit three characteristics:

(1) New regional distribution of complaints

Main complaint regions include Zhejiang (2.466 million), Guangdong (2.371 million), Shanghai (2.286 million), Beijing (1.574 million), and Jiangsu (815,000), together accounting for 63.1% of online shopping complaints. This correlates with the developed e-commerce industries and active online consumption in these areas, showing a “centralized in the east, long-tail distribution” pattern. Rapid growth is observed in Guangxi (124,000), Jilin (120,000), Sichuan (391,000), and Chongqing (150,000), with increases of 35.8%, 29.8%, 28.6%, and 28.6%, indicating a new regional pattern of “east concentrated, west accelerating.”

(2) Focus on “post-purchase experience” in consumer rights protection

The most reported issues are after-sales service (3.486 million) and product quality (2.886 million), together accounting for 42.3%, far exceeding other categories. Despite improvements in transaction convenience and product variety, post-purchase fulfillment and quality remain weak points. After-sales issues are concentrated in clothing and footwear, food, cultural entertainment and sports, household items, and internet services, accounting for 41.5% of after-sales complaints. Quality complaints mainly involve clothing and footwear, household items, home appliances, communication products, and cosmetics, making up 54.6%. These issues often relate to difficulties in returns/exchanges, inaccurate sizing descriptions, fabric quality, workmanship, fading, and pilling. Many quality disputes eventually escalate into after-sales disputes, showing a strong link between product quality and after-sales service.

(3) Price disputes during e-commerce shopping festivals

In recent years, to seize market opportunities and extend sales periods, major shopping festivals like “6.18” and “Double 11” adopt “extended cycle” models, starting nearly a month before the actual event, divided into phases such as opening, special sales, peak, return, and category days. This approach boosts sales but also causes frequent price disputes due to long cycles, complex rules, and dynamic pricing. During 2025 festivals, price fluctuations of the same product became a focus. During “6.18,” the platform received 100,000 complaints about prices, an 11.8% increase from the previous period and 11.9% year-on-year, with 21,000 involving price protection claims—up 2.5 times from before and 15.6% year-on-year. During “Double 11,” complaints reached 99,000, up 17.4% from the previous period and 9.5% year-on-year, with 22,000 involving price protection—tripling from the previous period. Core issues include consumers paying deposits during pre-sale, only to find lower prices during final payment or peak periods. Despite platform price protection services, consumers often face rejection due to link changes or coupon differences.

5. Enterprise clustering effect is prominent, with four business sectors showing prominent demands

In 2025, the top 100 enterprises with the most complaints and reports involved 4.679 million cases, accounting for 17.7% of total platform demands, indicating that consumer rights protection mainly concentrates on large-scale, widely covered companies. The main sectors include comprehensive e-commerce platforms, local life services, content and social entertainment, and consumer electronics and smart hardware, which together account for 90% of complaints among the top 100 enterprises. Smaller proportions are seen in fintech, payment, retail brands, and logistics, but these often involve issues related to funds security, transaction credit, and performance guarantees, with high societal impact and attention.

6. Awareness of rights continues to strengthen, but some categories still face pain points

In 2025, total complaints increased by 9.3%, while the disputed amount decreased by 4.5% to 23.5 billion yuan, reflecting increased consumer awareness and smoother channels, but also a rise in small-value disputes. Among goods and services with over 100,000 complaints, two issues stand out: high-value traditional categories like transportation, construction materials, jewelry, maintenance, and intermediary services still have high average dispute amounts (e.g., 6,950 yuan, 3,101 yuan, 2,531 yuan, 2,284 yuan, 2,104 yuan). Although some categories declined compared to previous years, the cost of rights protection remains high. Conversely, disputes in emerging and basic sectors are rising rapidly, such as telecom services (558 yuan), pet and pet supplies (890 yuan), pharmaceuticals (1,080 yuan), transportation services (477 yuan), and internet services (736 yuan), with increases of 2.3 times, 1.6 times, 88.2%, 82.1%, and 51.1%, respectively.

7. Fluctuations in takeout demands highlight industry competition needs to be rationalized

As online and offline retail accelerate integration, fierce competition in the instant delivery sector has attracted social attention. In 2025, complaints about takeout reached 505,000, a 14.1% increase. Main issues include food safety (262,000), after-sales service (63,000), contract issues (24,000), unfair competition (23,000), and quality problems (19,000), together accounting for nearly 80%. In Q3, platform subsidies and promotions led to a surge in orders, but service capacity lagged, causing demand to rise sharply—complaints increased by 23.8% year-on-year and 19.2% quarter-on-quarter. In Q4, as subsidies receded and the market cooled, demand declined by 22.8% from Q3. Overall, consumer demands in the takeout industry fluctuate with market conditions, and the industry needs to shift toward more rational and sustainable competition.

8. “Charging anxiety” demands rise, service experience needs upgrading

With rapid digital and electrification progress, power endurance has become a basic need for mobile lifestyles and green travel. However, “charging anxiety” persists and has extended from mobile phones to vehicles, becoming a pain point in daily consumption and travel. In 2025, complaints about power banks reached 156,000, up 62.5%, mainly involving product quality, returns, shared power bank borrowing and returning difficulties, and abnormal billing. Meanwhile, with the rapid increase in new energy vehicle ownership and expanding charging infrastructure, service quality issues are increasingly prominent. Complaints about EV charging facilities totaled 61,000, up 47.8%, involving difficulties in refunds, “ghost” operators, opaque charging standards, and unresponsive customer service. Overall, the quality and service gap between small portable chargers and large infrastructure for EVs is widening, requiring operators to strengthen compliance, optimize service processes, and fundamentally reduce consumer “charging anxiety” to improve travel and consumption experiences.

9. Jewelry consumption upgrade, gold and jade become core demand areas

As the jewelry market flourishes, especially among young consumers seeking personalized, everyday accessories, a large fashion jewelry market has formed. In 2025, complaints about jewelry totaled 380,000, up 16.4%. Gold jewelry (142,000) and natural jade (102,000) are the core demand fields, accounting for 87.9% of total jewelry complaints. Growth rates show that natural jade (35.6%) and silver jewelry (34.2%) increased fastest, followed by natural gemstones (25.1%). Consumer issues mainly focus on three aspects: first, some products have insufficient precious metal purity, substandard jade, or harmful substances; second, fixed-price gold jewelry lacks clear weight markings, with prices far exceeding market gold prices, and undisclosed exchange restrictions; third, e-commerce sales issues are prominent, accounting for 60% of jewelry complaints, involving false advertising, misrepresentation, and “non-returnable custom orders.”

10. Rapid rise of smart consumption, disconnect between function promotion and user experience

The market has entered an era of smart consumption, with smart features becoming key marketing points. Many mature, practical smart products provide consumers with convenient, efficient experiences, improving quality of life. However, some products’ functions do not match their promotional claims, and user experiences are poor, leading to frequent disputes. In 2025, complaints about smart devices reached 152,000, up 26.6%. Top categories include smartwatches (50,000), smart home devices (29,000), drones (19,000), smart accessories (18,000), and smart robots (17,000), together accounting for 87.5%. Growth is notable in drones, fitness bands (10,000), and smart glasses (3,235), with increases of 45.5%, 39.4%, and 37.7%. Common issues involve after-sales service (51,000), quality problems (51,000), and violations of consumer rights (12,000). Consumers mainly report overhyped “smart” labels, limited actual functions, system failures, app crashes, compatibility issues, data sync problems, and the lack of unified standards and quality norms in emerging smart device sectors, with high thresholds for returns and exchanges.