Recently, a paper co-authored by Ningyao Ye, lecturer at the School of Juris Master, China University of Political Science and Law (CUPL), and Zhao Zeyu, a doctoral candidate at the School of Law in Renmin University of China, titled ‘The Reform of Consumer Protection in Mobile Payment Services in China: Legislation, Regulation, and Dispute Resolution’, was published online in the SSCI Q1 law journal Computer Law & Security Review (CLSR).
Published by the renowned international publisher Elsevier, CLSR was established in 1985 and is one of the earliest technology law journals included in the SSCI index. It ranks 5th among 150 SSCI law journals by the latest impact factor. As an international journal focusing on technology law and practice, CLSR serves as a premier platform for high-quality research, policy, and legal analysis in the fields of information technology law, computer security, and financial technology.
Previously, Dr. Ningyao Ye published an article titled ‘The Reform of Deposit Insurance in China: How China Evolves From Implicit Deposit Insurance to Explicit Deposit Insurance’ in the SSCI journal Asian Pacific Law Review, hosted by City University of Hong Kong. Zhao Zeyu, a PhD candidate, has also published in the SSCI journal Journal of Competition Law & Economics, issued by Oxford University Press, with the article "Algorithmic Price Discrimination and the Right to Algorithmic Explanation."
The paper explores consumer protection in mobile payments by examining the risks faced by consumers using WeChat Pay and Alipay in China. These risks include account theft, information breaches, and transaction insecurity. Given the dominant market positions of large payment service platforms, these risks can amplify into systemic concerns. The paper highlights several key issues: (1) The unclear legal definition of financial consumers in China; (2) Comparatively lenient regulatory oversight of mobile payments compared to other financial sectors; (3) The inherently vulnerable position of consumers in mobile payment transactions; (4) The still-incomplete legal framework for consumer protection in mobile payments. Together, these characteristics demonstrate that the current regulatory approach in China is insufficient to effectively prevent harm to mobile payment consumers.
The paper also evaluates the impact of China’s 2023 financial institutional reforms and the growing financial consumer dispute resolution mechanisms on consumer protection in mobile payments. While these measures contribute positively to consumer protection, they remain inadequate. The authors propose the following recommendations: (1) Integrate existing laws and regulations on financial consumer protection; (2) Strengthen the institutional framework for financial consumer dispute resolution mechanisms; (3) Draw lessons from the EU’s “gatekeeper” system to develop a regulatory framework for “systemically important non-bank payment institutions” in China.
