A Chinese actress’s complaint about online travel company Ctrip’s bundled sales of additional products and services has caused heated debate online. On December 1, Shanghai Insurance Regulatory Bureau issued a total fine of RMB 400,000 to Ctrip Insurance Agency for the illegal activities in 2016, specified as “no disclosure of underwriting company, the main sales agent, not explicitly disclosing the product information and the provisions of the serial number”, Chinese media Daily Economic News is reporting.
After the investigation of Ctrip, Shanghai Insurance Regulatory Bureau revealed that there was illegal activity in the Ctrip network sales of insurance products in 2016: that is, in the sale of insurance products through the Ctrip process, did not specify the name of underwriting companies and sales agents name for the consumers.
In addition, in the insurance order confirmation link, the company did not disclose specifically a list of the links and filing numbers of the insurance products of all the cooperated insurance companies. That way, the consumers are not sure the insurance products they ordered cover which company’s clause and the corresponding record number.
TechNode has reached out Ctrip for comment and will update when we receive a response.
On Sep 10, “Ctrip bundling sales of hotel coupons” was thrown into a hot discussion online as Chinese singer and actress Han Xue, who is also an avid Ctrip user, posted a screen capture of the Ctrip on her Weibo account. She claimed that even though she did not choose “hotel coupon (酒店优惠券）”, the coupon was selected on the booking information and charged to her.
There is another consumer who also posted the complaint on Weibo account, claiming that Ctrip “concealed the important fact on the insurance contract” on April 11. The aviation accident insurance fee (航空意外费）specified on the purchasing page was RMB 20, which turned out to be RMB 30 on the booking information.
According to a survey conducted by a reporter in the Daily Economic News, the insurance companies that Ctrip previously had cooperated on insurance products with include aviation accident insurance, aviation compound insurance, aviation delay insurance, airline ticket refund insurance, domestic and overseas travel insurance, and account security insurance.
“In order to prevent risks, Ctrip previously chose a number of insurance companies to provide services at the same time, the specific underwriting companies in the insurance only given a clear range, the insurance policy ultimately falls to which insurance company is automatically matched through the system. According to the same price of insurance products, insurance coverage and coverage of all insurance companies are the same, the sum insured is also consistent,” a spokesperson at Ctrip said.