Misleading 'Ticket Reservation Assistance' – Chinese Third-Party Train Ticket Platforms Summoned by Authorities

Intense competition in China's platform economy has led to frequent consumer deception. Today, Chinese authorities summoned seven third-party train ticket platforms—including Ctrip, Meituan, Tongcheng, Qunar, Fliggy, Zhixing Train Ticket, and Gaotie Guanjia—over misleading promotions of services like 'reservation assistance' and 'paid seat selection'. These companies were urged to strictly comply with regulations.

According to CCTV News, China's State Administration for Market Regulation, together with the Cyberspace Administration of China and the National Railway Administration, conducted formal talks with the seven platforms. They were criticized for improper marketing of 'reservation assistance' and 'paid seat selection', misleading users into 'buying long but riding short' or 'buying short but riding long', and improperly collecting and using user personal data.

Regulators demanded that these companies strictly adhere to relevant laws and comprehensively rectify their train ticket sales practices. Authorities warned that any illegal activities discovered will be dealt with severely in accordance with the law.

As reported by China Economic Net, the 12306 website and app are the only official platforms authorized by China State Railway Group for online ticket sales. Third-party platforms only offer proxy purchasing services.

However, value-added services like 'reservation assistance' and 'paid seat selection' promoted by third-party platforms do not operate through independent ticket sources or priority channels. Instead, they exploit 12306's free waiting-list mechanism and ticket change/refund rules. Using automated programs, they repeatedly refresh, cancel orders, and occupy and release seats to create a false impression of 'ticket grabbing'.

By technically 'refreshing and holding seats', these platforms effectively fabricate services that falsely promise priority ticket access or 'paid seat selection' and charge users accordingly. This misleads consumers into paying unnecessary fees and undermines the fairness of the ticketing system.

Many users are unaware that 12306 offers a free waiting-list function with a success rate comparable to the platforms' 'assisted purchase'. Platforms deliberately blur the essential difference between the 'official free waiting-list' and 'paid platform assistance', exploiting information asymmetry to induce consumers to pay extra.

Marketing phrases like 'guaranteed ticket plans', 'priority ticket issuance', and 'window seat selection' create artificial scarcity and urgency, impairing consumers' rational decision-making. These practices carry legal risks.

Platforms also encourage 'buying long but riding short', where consumers pay for longer-distance tickets than they actually travel, causing personal financial loss. Meanwhile, long-distance seats meant for sale remain vacant due to early disembarkation, wasting passenger resources. Moreover, the mismatch between actual travel segments and ticket information disrupts railway operators' passenger flow statistics and capacity planning.

Inducing 'buying short but riding long' directly threatens train safety and operational order. When many passengers buy short-distance tickets but intend to travel further, trains may become severely overcrowded. If such platform-driven behavior leads to railway safety incidents, the platforms could face legal liability.