消费者过度维权与敲诈勒索罪界限探究

Analysis on boundary between“Excessive Rights Protection”of consumption and racketeering

近年来消费者一改往日的弱者形象,维权意识逐渐增强,但维权行为中不乏以威胁商家为手段求取高额赔偿,这与刑法中敲诈勒索罪的行为构成在一定范围内重合。而消费者维权行为是民事维权中私力救济的一种方式,界限不清往往会造成司法混乱。要依法将这类边缘案件定性,不仅需准确分类消费者过度维权行为,借鉴国内外相关法律和理论,还应从刑法法理的角度讨论行为认定问题并从根源上减少过度维权行为的出现。

With the enhancement of consumers＇ self-protection awareness,it frequently occurred that consumers coerce manufacturers into paying enormous compensation by threatening with the scandal of products＇ defect,which may be characterized as racketeering according to the criminal law to a certain degree.Consumers＇ self-protection is the right of private remedy in civil law,and the unclear boundaries lead to judicial confusion.In order to solve such cases,we should not only classify consumers＇ excessive rights behavior accurately with reference to related laws and theories at home and abroad,but also identify such behaviors from the perspective of legal theory of the criminal law and reduce the occurrence of excessive rights behavior radically.