The Predicament and Outlet of Consumer Rights Protection under the Background of Platform Economy
——Focus on Platform Service Agreement
Abstract：The platform service agreement is the main channel for the platform to connect consumers ，and also an important field for the protection of consumer rights in the platform economy. The particularity of the operation mode of the platform economy and the convenience of concluding the platform service agreement make the protection of consumer rights in the platform service agreement face new challenges. An empirical study of 40 platform service agreement texts shows that typical unfair clauses，such as restricting account ownership，manufacturing information asymmetry，avoiding business risks and setting relief barriers，are prevalent in various platform service agreements at present ，and the current law has therefore fallen into the digital dilemma of consumer rights protection. The root of this dilemma is that the basic relationship between the platform and consumers is unbalanced，and the rapid development of the platform economy has led to the continuous intensification of this imbalance：at the main level，the platform has a natural expansion and monopoly trend，while consumers are in a passive state of receiving protection，and the two parties do not have reciprocity in the process of concluding the service agreement ；at the content level，the cumbersome，obscure and frequent changes of the content of the platform service agreement have aggravated the information asymmetry between the two sides ；and at the regulatory level，the regulatory concept and system of the current law have not achieved the desired results. In view of this，in order to solve the dilemma of consumer rights protection in the platform service agreement，we should subjectively correct the "weak and stupid" portrait hypothesis of consumers in the platform economy，and stimulate the subjective consciousness of consumer groups to "fight for rights". Objectively ，first，we should take measures to reduce the cost of safeguarding rights and create conditions for platform consumers to seek judicial relief ；second，we should pay attention to the advantages of preventive administrative regulation and make up for the inherent limitations of judicial regulation；and third，we should activate the platform's obligation to prompt and explain the service agreement to solve the problem of information asymmetry between consumers and the platform.
Key words：platform economy；platform service agreement；consumer protection；barriers to negotiation equivalence；ad⁃ ministrative regulation