Last year's consumer complaints and reports had ten major characteristics, with after-sales service, quality, and contract issues being particularly prominent.

In 2025, 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, an 11.4% increase; inquiries reached 17.406 million. Consumers recovered 4.35 billion yuan in economic losses, effectively protecting their legal rights and interests. The main features are as follows:

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

In 2025, the total complaints handled by market regulation departments reached 20.366 million, a 9.3% increase, surpassing 20 million for the first time, indicating growing consumer awareness of rights. The main issues include after-sales service (5.347 million), quality problems (3.972 million), food safety issues (2.385 million), and contract issues (2.102 million), accounting for 26.3%, 19.5%, 11.7%, and 10.3% respectively. After-sales service complaints have ranked first for three consecutive years, highlighting some merchants’ insufficient emphasis on after-sales guarantees and failure to meet basic consumer service needs. Contract issues grew by 40.3% year-on-year, making it the fastest-growing core complaint area, mainly involving difficulties in refunds, opaque contract terms, hidden “霸王条款” (abusive clauses), merchants not fulfilling obligations as agreed, and discrepancies between promotional promises and contract content.

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

In 2025, market regulation departments verified 6.094 million reports, an 11.4% increase. The main 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 growth rates for violations of consumer rights, product quality violations, and online transaction violations were 31.4%, 25.8%, and 16.4%, respectively. Trademark violations (175,000 cases) decreased significantly by 9.4%, reflecting ongoing strengthening of intellectual property enforcement in recent years.

3. Daily consumer goods demand concentrated, with service complaints leading 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 (0.713 million), and communication products (0.708 million) ranked top among goods complaints, making up 26.1%, 12.8%, 9.1%, 5.4%, and 5.4%, respectively. Among goods with over 500,000 complaints, communication products, computers (517,000), transportation tools, household items, and home appliances (671,000) saw rapid growth, with increases of 26.2%, 24.1%, 22.2%, 18.8%, and 13.7%. Service complaints were 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), with respective proportions of 16.6%, 10.6%, 9.7%, 9.1%, and 8.9%. Services with over 100,000 complaints, such as leasing (198,000), intermediaries (122,000), maintenance and repair (216,000), internet, and sales services, grew rapidly—31.6%, 30.6%, 24%, and 19.2%, respectively.

4. Online shopping demands show new characteristics, 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, 11.447 million were complaints, and 3.62 million reports, recovering 1.07 billion yuan for consumers, representing 24.6% of total recovered losses. Online shopping complaints exhibit three main features:

(1) New regional distribution of complaints

The main complaint regions are 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 “concentrated in the east, with a long tail” pattern. Rapid growth was seen 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%, respectively, indicating a new pattern of “eastern concentration, western acceleration.”

(2) Focus on “post-purchase experience”

Complaints about after-sales service (3.486 million) and quality issues (2.886 million) are the most common, together accounting for 42.3%, far exceeding other categories. Despite improvements in transaction convenience and product variety, post-purchase guarantees and product quality remain weak points. After-sales issues mainly involve clothing and footwear, food, cultural entertainment and sports services, household items, and internet services, accounting for 41.5% of after-sales complaints. Quality complaints mainly concern clothing, household items, home appliances, communication products, and cosmetics, making up 54.6% of quality issues. The two categories are strongly linked, with many quality disputes eventually leading to after-sales conflicts.

(3) Price disputes during shopping festivals are prominent

In recent years, to seize market opportunities and extend sales periods, major shopping festivals like “6.18” and “Double 11” have adopted “extended cycle” models, dividing the event into phases such as opening, special sales, climax, return, and category days, often lasting nearly a month. This creates record sales but also leads to frequent price disputes due to long durations, complex rules, and fluctuating prices. During 2025 festivals, price fluctuations of the same product became a focus. The 12315 platform received 100,000 price complaints during “6.18,” an 11.8% increase from the previous period, and 99,000 during “Double 11,” a 17.4% increase. Complaints about price protection reached 21,000 during “6.18” (up 2.5 times), and 22,000 during “Double 11” (up 3.3 times). 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, many consumers are denied claims due to link changes or different coupon types.

5. Enterprise clustering effect is significant, 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 is concentrated on large, 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 the top 100 companies’ complaints. Smaller sectors like fintech, retail brands, and logistics have fewer complaints but often involve issues related to funds security, transaction credibility, and performance guarantees, attracting high social attention.

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

In 2025, total complaints increased by 9.3%, while the accumulated disputed amount decreased by 4.5% to 23.5 billion yuan. This contrast reflects increased consumer awareness and smoother channels for rights protection, 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 year-on-year, the overall cost of rights protection remains high. Meanwhile, emerging and basic sectors see rapid increases in dispute amounts, 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. Takeout demands fluctuate significantly; industry competition needs to be more rational

As online and offline retail accelerate integration, fierce competition in the instant delivery sector has raised social concern. In 2025, complaints about takeout services reached 505,000, a 14.1% increase. Major issues include food safety (262,000), after-sales service (63,000), contract issues (24,000), unfair competition (23,000), and quality problems (19,000), accounting for nearly 80%. During the third quarter, “subsidy wars” led to order surges, but service capacity lagged, causing complaints to rise by 23.8% quarter-on-quarter and 19.2% year-on-year. In the fourth quarter, as subsidies receded and the market cooled, complaints decreased by 22.8% from the previous quarter. Overall, takeout consumer demands fluctuate with market conditions, and industry competition should shift toward more rational and sustainable development.

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

With rapid digital and electrification progress, power endurance has become a basic need for mobile life and green travel. However, “charging anxiety” persists and extends 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, “跑路” (abandonment) by operators, opaque charging standards, and unresponsive customer service. Overall, the quality and service gap between small portable chargers and large infrastructure remains large, requiring operators to strengthen compliance, optimize service processes, and fundamentally reduce consumer “charging anxiety” to improve experience.

9. Jewelry consumption upgrade; gold and jade become core complaint areas

As the jewelry market flourishes, especially among young consumers seeking personalized, everyday accessories, a large fashion jewelry market has formed. In 2025, jewelry complaints reached 380,000, up 16.4%. Among these, gold jewelry (142,000) and natural jade (102,000) are the main focus, accounting for 87.9% of total jewelry complaints. Growth rates show that natural jade increased fastest at 35.6%, followed by silver jewelry and natural gemstones at 34.2% and 25.1%. Consumer issues mainly involve three aspects: first, some products have insufficient precious metal purity, substandard jade, or harmful substances; second, “one-price” gold jewelry lacks clear weight markings, with prices often exceeding market gold prices, and undisclosed exchange restrictions; third, online sales account for 60% of complaints, involving false advertising, misrepresentation, and “no return on customization” issues.

10. Rapid rise of smart consumption; functionality claims and user perception often misaligned

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宣传, and user experiences are poor, leading to disputes. In 2025, complaints about smart devices reached 152,000, a 26.6% increase. Top categories include smartwatches (50,000), smart home devices (29,000), drones (19,000), smart accessories (18,000), and smart robots (17,000), accounting for 87.5% of total. Growth was especially notable in drones, smart bands, and smart glasses, 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 with limited actual functionality, software bugs like system crashes and compatibility issues, and the lack of unified standards and quality controls in emerging smart device sectors, with high thresholds for returns and exchanges.

(Original title: 2025 Consumer Complaints and Reports Show Ten Major Features)