Zhejiang Consumer Council invited representatives of nine video platforms and two audio platforms for a briefing on the rectifications on April 8. Photo: courtesy of Zhejiang Consumer Council
As Chinese workers from all walks of life（各行各业）are resuming work and production（复工复产）, some couch potatoes（电视迷）immersed in watching movies and short videos online, during the nationwide COVID-19 lockdown, found they are being automatically charged（自动续费） for the video services without prior notification（没有事先告知）.
The consumer rights protection organ in East China's Zhejiang Province, Zhejiang Consumer Council（浙江消保委）, announced Monday that nine video platforms and two audio platforms have agreed to cancel their default function of automatic renewal of payment（默认自动续费功能） as mandated by the council.
The council told the Global Times Tuesday, an investigation dating back to as early as 2019, found this problem with some online streaming platforms, including iQiyi, Tencent Video, and Ximalaya. The council later informed the public about this issue through media.
The council conducted another round of investigations in these platforms in January and February and found that the old issue has not been fundamentally resolved（没有被根本解决）, while other new problems have emerged.
"Since all these platforms were not registered in Zhejiang Province, we did not receive many complaints — about 20 complaints through a WeChat investigation — from consumers concerning the automatic payment, but we still invited the related companies based on our public opinion monitoring（舆论监督）, considering such adjustments on the renewal of payment（续费） are necessary in regards to consumer protection rights," Ren Qianying, an official with the council told the Global Times on Tuesday.
In their replies to the council, the platforms agreed to cancel this default function（默认功能） of the automatic deduction of fees and proactively inform consumers of the detailed un-subscription（取消订阅） process.
Besides, customers who have signed up for monthly, quarterly or annual packages, will be informed by the company, proactively, about subscription renewal before the deduction of amount（扣除金额）. 此外，凡已签订月度、季度或年度套餐的客户，在扣除金额前，公司会主动通知续费事宜。
Among these platforms, Mgtv.com has completed its rectification as of April 9 and PPTV will launch its updated platform soon. The two platforms said they would further improve their services to timely respond to customer feedback（客户反馈）.
The council will supervise the rectification（监督整改）by the companies according to their guidelines. "We will employ volunteers of consumer rights protection to conduct investigations to see if they implement and complete the rectification measures（整改措施）," Ren said.
The nationwide stagnation of movement during the epidemic has apparently increased the duration of online video watching. Statistics from the video platform Bilibili show that its users watched videos related to the epidemic 1.9 billion times.
面对更多用户的信任和青睐，视音平台更该少些套路，多些真诚。偷偷摸摸赚用户的钱，只会自毁“钱”途；屡屡给用户挖坑，最后坑的是自己。
（英文来源：Global Times）
