ABSTRACT
Most countries, including the People’s Republic of China (PRC), regulate consumer protection; however, diversifi ed sets of rules concerning different areas of law exist in each jurisdiction: contract and tort law, administrative regulations for goods and services provided to consumers, criminal liability of companies for the misconduct of their agents towards consumers, as well as procedural rules aimed at promoting access to justice for individual consumers and the organizations that represent them, and at entrusting administrative authorities with the task of educating consumers. Those rules that govern the relationship between the distribution of goods and services, on the one hand, and citizens’ rights, on the other, may be based on several other justifi cations in addition to consumer protection. Two phenomena support the idea that many legal orders have enacted a consolidated consumer law, autonomous from other legal disciplines.
