In an era when everything can be broadcast live, more and more companies are embarking on the road to live streaming and selling goods to activate business growth.
The money-making ability of live streaming goods is constantly attracting merchants and anchors!
But without rules, it is impossible to make a square move. Selling fake goods in the live broadcast room and deliberately exaggerating false propaganda will inevitably receive strong supervision and punishment from the law and all parties...
1. Fined 100,000 for false propaganda
Recently, the Zhengzhou Municipal Market Supervision Administration announced a penalty information-
When an anchor named Zong Panpan was broadcasting and selling the "lvz377vc whitening and freckle removal set box" for a daily necessity department store, he used the terms "lvz377vc whitening and freckle removal set box is the ceiling of the whitening and freckle removal industry, and the leader of the whitening and freckle removal industry is the small white light, and the terminal station for whitening and freckle removal".
It is accused of suspected false advertising, which violates the provisions of Article 8, paragraph 1 of the Anti-Unfair Competition Law that "operators shall not make false or misleading commercial publicity about the performance, function, quality, sales status, user evaluation, and honors of their products, and deceive or mislead consumers."
According to the penalty information, the above-mentioned products involved were sold 279 orders, with a sales amount of 55,914 yuan, and Zong Panpan received a commission of 1,569.87 yuan.
As a result, the Zhengzhou Municipal Supervision Bureau finally imposed a fine of 95,000 yuan on Zong Panpan to stop the illegal acts, confiscate illegal income of 15.6987 yuan.
It is worth noting that after the incident, the store cooperated to recall some of the products that have been sold.
In other words, due to the false propaganda of the anchor when selling goods on live streaming, the sales of some products of the store were wasted, and the store also lost the commission fee paid to the anchor, which can be said to have lost both the wife and the soldiers.
2. False propaganda by tens of millions of fans and anchors
One refund will be compensated three!
Coincidentally, in August, He Dongdong, an anchor with 21.85 million fans on Kuaishou and founder of Mengquan brand, was sued by consumers for false publicity in the live broadcast room.
The reason is that He Dongdong sold a product called "[M161HX] Mengquan Fairy Glowing Essence Set [Straight]" during the live broadcast, and claimed that its products have a stain-removing and whitening effect, making misleading and misleading commercial publicity on the performance and functions of the products, deceiving and misleading consumers.
由于贺冬冬作为主播，违反了《网络直搤营销管理办法》、《化妆品监督管理条例》、《广告法》、《侵害消费者权益行为处罚办法》、《消费者权益保护法》等多款法律规定，法院判其向消费者退还货款，并进行三倍赔偿。
It can be seen that exaggerating the effect and false propaganda have always been a chronic problem in the live streaming and one of the most common problems in the beauty industry.
3. Under chaos, new regulations on live streaming of e-commerce have been released
In fact, from Viya being accused of selling counterfeit Supreme co-branded products, and Internet celebrity anchor Lu Sao Pingrong being accused of selling counterfeit mobile phones, to the recent incident of Simba’s bird’s nest selling incident that once again topped the hot search list... In recent years, live streaming has been in chaos.
According to data from the Heimao Complaint Platform, the number of complaints with "live broadcast" as the keyword exceeded 70,000 in 2021, an increase of about 3.5 times year-on-year, and problems such as false activities, product quality, false publicity, and price misleading are the most prominent.
In order to standardize the development of the live streaming and selling industry, on March 1, 2022, the Supreme People's Court issued the "Regulations on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Laws in the Trial of Online Consumption Disputes (I)" (officially implemented on March 15, 2022), and made clear rights and obligations for participants in new market formats such as e-commerce platforms, operators, and online live broadcast room operators.
Among them, the main regulations involving live streaming sales are as follows:
If the operators on the platform (i.e., "merchants") open live broadcast rooms to sell goods, and their staff causes damage to consumers due to false propaganda during the online live broadcast, the consumers can claim that the merchant bears compensation liability;
If a merchant sells goods or services to harm consumers' legitimate rights and interests, the compensation he promises to consumers is higher than the relevant statutory compensation standards, and consumers may claim compensation as promised by the merchant;
The anchor should use a method that is sufficient to enable consumers to identify the actual seller to standardize the live broadcast room, otherwise the anchor will be responsible;
The selling of goods in the live broadcast room harms the legitimate rights and interests of consumers. The platform where the live broadcast room is located shall provide the anchor’s real name, name, address and valid contact information, otherwise the platform shall bear the liability for compensation;
If the anchor knows or should know that the goods provided by the actual seller do not meet the requirements for protecting personal or property safety or have other acts that infringe on the legitimate rights and interests of consumers and still promotes them, the anchor and the actual seller shall bear joint and several liability;
If an online merchant staff guides consumers to make payments through smuggled payment methods, the merchant shall still bear the responsibility and defend against the grounds that it has not been paid through the transaction platform, and the court will not support it.
It is not difficult to see that the current regulatory authorities' supervision and scope of live streaming goods are gradually expanding.
4. Live streaming sales tends to be standardized
Behind the huge profit opportunities, fatal risks are often hidden.
There is no doubt that live streaming sales has opened a door to a traffic highland for merchants.
However, the live streaming and sales industry has long passed a period of wild growth.
As the saying goes, the Internet is not a lawless place, and supervision and punishment will not be absent. Those who want to make false descriptions and false propaganda through live broadcasts may not bring sky-high punishment, but it will inevitably endanger the reputation of the merchant and even the ability to continue operating.
I hope all businesses will be alert!
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