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 are resuming work and production, some couch potatoes immersed in watching movies and short videos online, during the nationwide COVID-19 lockdown, found they are being automatically charged for the video services without prior notification. 

The consumer rights protection organ in East China's Zhejiang Province, Zhejiang Consumer Council, announced Monday that nine video platforms and two audio platforms have agreed to cancel their default function of automatic renewal of payment 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, 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, considering such adjustments on the renewal of payment 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 of the automatic deduction of fees and proactively inform consumers of the detailed un-subscription 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. 

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. 

The council will supervise the rectification 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," 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.