我國消費者保護懲罰性賠償的新發展

The New Development of Punitive Damages for Consumer Protection in china

我國《消費者權益保護法》修訂了懲罰性賠償制度，分別規定了違約懲罰性賠償和侵權懲罰性賠償。就違約懲罰性賠償而言，將「退一賠一」修改為「退一賠三」，同時增加規定了小額損害懲罰性賠償的最低限額；汸侵權懲 性賠償，明確了故意要件，並將計算差數定為受害人所受損失，將倍數確定為「二倍」以下。這一規則增加了我國懲罰性賠償制度的可操作性，對於保護消費者合法權益具有重要意義。China's new punitive damages provision for consumer protection makes significant changes of the old 'return one and pay one' punitive damages rule, which provides that business operators engaged in fraudulent activites in supplying commodities or services shall, on the demand of the consumers, follow the rule of 'return one and pay three'. While the new provision is that the business operators shall, under the same circumstances be liable for return of goods and pay the increased amount of the compensations which shall be three times the costs that the consumers paid for the commodities purchased or services received; if the total amount is less than￥500, the minimal claims for compensation would be ￥500; when goods and services maliciously cause death or serious harm of health to consumers, the victims shall claim both for the actual losses as well as for the punitive damages within two times of the actual losses. It is a new development of China's punitive damages regime for the consumer protection and is significantly important for the protection of the legitimate interests of consumers.