On 31 July 2023 the General Office of the State Council transmitted the National Development and Reform Commission’s Measures on Restoring and Expanding Consumption, setting out twenty measures across six areas. The document covers automobiles, housing, services consumption, rural consumption, consumer facilities and the consumption environment.
For consumer businesses, the policy brings market opportunities, but opportunity and compliance risk often arrive together. Heavier promotions, expanding prepaid models and growing live commerce push consumer rights, price labelling, advertising and fund safety to the front.
Automobiles and housing
The automobile section calls for optimising purchase and use management, not adding purchase restrictions, removing used-car relocation limits and encouraging trade-ins. The housing section supports刚性 and improvement demand. For dealerships and property-related businesses, policy changes directly affect sales节奏 and contract arrangements.
Trade-ins involve valuation of the old vehicle, subsidy application and delivery of the new one. Contracts should specify valuation standards, subsidy ownership, delivery timing and breach liability. Housing transactions involve deposits, down payments, mortgages and online contracting; unclear wording at any stage can create disputes.
Services and prepaid consumption
The document promotes services consumption in catering, culture and tourism, sports, elderly care and childcare. The common model is prepaid cards and memberships, an area with high complaint volumes.
Compliance points include clear prepaid amounts and service periods; refund, transfer and extension rules written into contracts; agreed treatment on closure or relocation; and no standard terms that exclude consumers’ main rights. Chain brands should also consider single-purpose prepaid card filing and fund supervision requirements.
Live commerce and advertising
The document encourages new forms of consumption, with live commerce as a key channel. Risks concentrate in false advertising, price misleading, product quality and after-sales responsibility. Allocation of responsibility among主播, platform and merchant should be written into cooperation agreements.
On advertising, claims such as “lowest price”, “lowest across the internet” or “number one seller” require verifiable support; efficacy claims must meet sector rules; price comparisons require price records. MCN agencies should establish product-selection and script-review processes.
Consumption environment and complaints
The document calls for improving the consumption environment, including complaint handling and market supervision. For businesses, response speed and handling quality will become part of regulatory and platform assessment.
A workable approach is tiered complaint handling: routine enquiries to customer service; quality and safety issues escalated to legal and quality control; group complaints triggering an emergency plan. Retain time, channel, content and outcome for every complaint to create a traceable record.
Dividend and compliance cost
Consumption stimulus usually brings short-term traffic, but compliance cost does not disappear. When designing promotions, review advertising language, price labelling, prepaid rules, return policies and personal information collection together. Put compliance review before launch, not after complaints.
For consumer rights and contract terms, see our commercial contracts service and commercial dispute resolution; for advertising and content compliance, see data compliance; for prepaid cards and market access, see business licensing.
This article is based on the Measures on Restoring and Expanding Consumption published on 31 July 2023. It is for reference only and does not constitute legal advice.