Why "Famous Brands" Become the Hidden Rules of the Moving Industry
High imitation well-known moving company enters the public view by bidding ranking
● Relying on high imitation of well-known moving companies, and then entering the public's view through website bidding rankings, is already a common secret in the moving industry
● The threshold for moving companies is not high. One car and a few people can do business, and some do not even have fixed trucks and workers. They are only temporarily hired when they have a living. Standards such as basic skills, article safety, contract text, route design, etc. Almost blank
● Since search engine companies earn advertising fees through "biding rankings", they are obliged to provide users with safe and reliable search engine services.
If consumers find false information through the "biding ranking" search engine, resulting in loss of consumer property, the search engine company shall bear corresponding responsibility for the false information provided
□ reporter Zhang Wei
"Golden Nine and Silver Ten" is the hottest house swap season of the year.
In many communities, moving companies have recently visited.
If you pay attention to observation, you will find that the names of many moving companies are similar and extremely similar.
And this is not accidental. A reporter from the "Rules of Law Daily" recently discovered in an interview that relying on high imitation of well-known moving companies, and then entering the public eye through website bidding rankings, is already a common secret in the moving industry.
Some time ago, the news that singers encountered sky-high moving fees once detonated the Internet, causing social attention to chaos such as "high imitation" in the moving industry.
Accompanied by rampant copycats, there are usually behaviors that seriously damage consumers' rights and interests such as sitting on the ground and raising prices, personal harassment, and "bad money driving out good money" that disrupt market order and harm the interests of the industry.
How to curb such behaviors and make the moving industry clean and upright is an issue that needs urgent attention at the moment.
Singer meets sky-high moving expenses
Hidden chaos in the industry
Singer and writer Wu Hongfei did not expect that after a move, he would receive a bill totaling more than 18,000 yuan.
This is different from the charging information she had previously obtained from the moving company.
Before moving, she tried to find information on "Which is the best Beijing moving company" from the Internet. The first search result was Beijing Sifang Brothers Moving Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Sifang Brothers).
After clicking on the official website of this company close to the well-known moving company-"Brothers Moving", Wu Hongfei dialed the contact number on the website.
After Sifang Brothers moved, Wu Hongfei was asked to pay unannounced expenses. The total bill amounted to more than 18,000 yuan.
The staff of Sifang Brothers Company stated that the fee for using a car is 300 yuan, with an increase of 6 yuan per kilometer for 10 kilometers; 200 yuan for walking from the gate of the community to the home for 200 meters; in addition, no furniture removal fee is charged.
Wu Hongfei said that he moved about 30 kilometers away, using two vehicles and six movers.
According to the agreement, all expenses should add up to 1500 yuan to 2000 yuan.
Wu Hongfei exposed the matter on Weibo, which resonated with many netizens.
Many people have experienced the infringement of the rights and interests of copycat moving companies: either increase prices at will, or damage or loss of goods, or have a bad attitude, or threatened by harassment... The chaos in the moving industry has become the most social phenomenon in a time. One of the topics of concern.
Not only did consumers suffer greatly, but those "Li Kui" who were highly imitated also suffered for a long time.
Hou Zhuoen, deputy general manager of Guangzhou Volkswagen Moving Transportation Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Volkswagen Moving) admitted frankly that as the first moving company established in the country, the counterfeiters of Volkswagen Moving and a large number of inferior moving companies have "like blooming everywhere over the years. Emerged and never stopped".
Not to mention counterfeiting, it is not standardized, and hurts the goodwill of real people moving houses.
According to media reports, a resident of Binjiang Garden in Haizhu District, Guangzhou City moved to Qingyuan. As a result, two moving vehicles came, both claiming to be the public moving.
In order to distinguish true from false, the police were finally called in.
The fake public who came first "required a red envelope when they came to the door" to "make a good picture", otherwise they would not move.
Many similar things have happened and Hou Zhuoen is very worried, "Will one day'bad money drive out good money" and cause a devastating blow to the entire industry."
This worry is not redundant.
"For a distance of 500 meters, increase the size to 3,600 yuan." "The moving company said, I know where your home is. If you don't pay, you will come every day." "Above 2,000 yuan, and the price will increase to 18,000 yuan on the ground"...
In the impression of many netizens, "professionalism, standardization, and low price" are the self-promotion and false propaganda of many copycat moving companies. Really dealing with them can only realize that "cutting the leek is faster than moving the company."
When trying to solve the problem by complaining to the supervisory authority, the situation of "finding the wrong person" occurs again.
For example, the Market Supervision Bureau of Yuhuatai District of Nanjing City disclosed in May this year that it had received multiple complaints against copycat moving companies. Only the Banqiao New City area of the Yuhuatai District Market Supervision Bureau received 35 complaints about "ant moving" copycats. .
According to the company registration information, I could not find the address of the Shanzhai company. According to its telephone instructions, I reached the business address and found that it was a duck shop.
The Sifang Brothers company that Wu Hongfei encountered also borrowed the light of the well-known moving company "Brothers Moving". After media investigation, it was found that no such company was found in the address published on the official website or the industrial and commercial address.
Layers of multiple factors
Copycat moving companies become popular
How to treat this kind of high imitation behavior of "rubbing famous brands"?
Cong Lixian, a professor at East China University of Political Science and Law, said in an interview with a reporter from the Rule of Law Daily that there are two possibilities for this kind of behavior: one is trademark infringement. Usually, well-known moving companies will register their company names as trademarks at the same time, even if they are not registered. After long-term use, it has been widely recognized by the society, and unregistered well-known trademarks can also be formed, or trademarks with a certain influence are protected by law, and in accordance with current laws and regulations, the protection is very strong.
The practice of "scratching the ball" by the copycat moving company constitutes an infringement of the trademark rights of the well-known moving company.
The second is the formation of unfair competition, and the use of other company names, packaging and decoration, causing confusion, is expressly prohibited by the Anti-Unfair Competition Law.
Chen Yinjiang, deputy secretary-general of the Consumer Rights Protection Law Research Association of the Chinese Law Society, also believes that this kind of "fringing on famous brands" is an act of unfair competition, which not only infringes the intellectual property rights of the counterfeited brand, but also disrupts the order of the market economy. And it violated consumers' right to know and to choose.
"Regular enterprises must invest a lot of manpower, material resources and time to build a brand, and they must provide consumers with high-quality products and services. Counterfeit enterprises pay low prices and then charge indiscriminately with various names, without considering brand image investment. Not only did formal enterprises suffer deeply, but also the reputation of the industry was questioned."
In recent years, my country has continuously strengthened the protection of intellectual property rights. The new Trademark Law promulgated last year has increased the penalties for trademark infringement. However, why “high imitation” in the moving industry has become more common and serious. What?
According to Dong Binghe, a professor at the Wang Jian Law School of Soochow University, the fundamental reason lies in the prevalence of opportunism. “Many market players just want to make quick money and are unwilling to operate honestly and honourably. This phenomenon also exists in other fields and industries. ".
At the same time, it is related to the characteristics of goodwill.
"The copycats misappropriate the goodwill of well-known companies by using the same or similar trademarks or brand names as well-known companies. Once consumers are deceived, bad reviews or negative influences point to the trademarks or brand names of the famous companies. The big deal is another brand name. The reputation of'brothers' is bad, and there are'father and son' or'sisters'." Dong Binghe said.
Dong Binghe analyzed that the prevalence of this phenomenon in the moving field may also be related to service trademarks.
Since service trademarks are usually not presented to consumers along with the service content in the process of consumers receiving services, it is also difficult for consumers to judge the quality of the service before receiving the service. Copycats have the opportunity to know the true identity of the service provider Cover up and make consumers mistakenly believe that what they are about to accept is the service provided by a well-known operator.
In Chen Yinjiang's view, the reason is that some dishonest businesses can easily make huge profits by "rubbing famous brands"; some enterprises are not very aware of intellectual property rights, and they are too tolerant and give in, making counterfeit companies even more arrogant.
“In industries like moving services, most companies use small advertisements or online information to solicit business. In addition, consumers’ brand awareness is not strong, and the final choice is mainly based on their quotations. The moving company provides an opportunity."
Cong Lixian believes that in addition to lack of integrity, there are two reasons for the low cost of violations and insufficient enforcement.
Cong Lixian reminded that in the "high imitation" infringements in the moving field, right holders are rarely seen defending their rights. This time it caused public attention because the copycat moving company harmed consumer rights and public interests.
Cong Lixian analyzes that this is related to the characteristics of the moving industry.
The threshold for moving companies is not high. One car and a few people can do business. Some do not even have fixed trucks and workers. They are only temporarily hired when they have a living. Basic skills, article safety, contract text, route design and other standards are close to blank.
In other words, many of the intellectual property protections are related to commodity economy or high-tech. The quality is relatively high. Pay attention to the protection of intellectual property rights, but the moving industry is relatively lacking in this regard.
In particular, many times moving companies hire some social idlers. The relatively heavier characteristics of "quake atmosphere" make right holders more jealous and dare not report, thus tolerating the high imitation behavior of copycat companies.
Bid ranking wins attention
Search engines may be accomplices
Of course, there are also those who dare to head-to-head with copycat companies, and Volkswagen Moving is one of them.
Hou Zhuoen revealed that since 2016, Volkswagen has decided to take legal weapons to protect its legitimate rights and interests and set up a special legal department to prosecute the copycat company.
So far, the rights protection lawsuits of the public moving houses have reached double digits.
All these lawsuits have been won, but Hou Zhuoen said that the infringement phenomenon has not really disappeared. There are always high imitation moving companies appearing, causing the rights protection lawsuits to be ongoing. He does not know when the road to rights protection will be ended.
Rights protection is not easy.
It is understood that as a service industry for the people's livelihood, the moving industry not only solves the rigid needs of ordinary citizens for moving, but also provides relocation services for various departments, institutions, and enterprises.
In the process of ensuring the quality of service and the sound development of the industry, the management cost invested in it is high and it is not a profiteering industry.
"The cost of protecting corporate rights continues to increase, complaints are difficult, the process is long, and the effectiveness is low, which has caused great threats and challenges to the survival of legally operating moving companies." Hou Zhuoen said.
A noteworthy phenomenon is that the direction of search engines makes it easy for customers to regard copycat companies as "real Likui" and keep sending them to their door for "cutting leeks."
In the moving business between Wu Hongfei and Sifang Brothers, there is an important "contribution" to the search engine. Sifang Brothers is the number one moving company she found from the search engine.
Media surveys found that these companies often invest heavily in bidding rankings. After the Sifang Brothers accident, someone had helped them calculate that the daily expenditure on search engines would not be less than 6,000 yuan.
Another moving company porter said that his company is highly dependent on the bidding rankings of 58.com and Baidu.com.
Due to the high bidding cost, the labor cost of porters has been compressed.
His company’s worker commission is only about 10%, and if he is a driver, the commission can reach 18%.
With meager returns, workers are more willing to make tricks in the quotation in order to earn extra rewards.
This is also a cause of chaos in the moving industry.
Dong Binghe pointed out that search service providers are to blame.
The success of copycats is related to the way in which they deliver service source information to consumers.
In the Internet age, consumers mainly rely on the Internet (including mobile Internet) to obtain relevant information.
"If consumers go to the copycat's business premises to investigate and discuss, the chance of being deceived will be greatly reduced. In the process of passing false information to consumers, search service providers play a big role."
"Search engines, etc. are important accomplices." Cong Lixian said, bidding rankings should be marked with advertising labels in prominent positions, if it is just because whoever gets more money, whoever is ranked first, search engines, applications, etc. Helping the suspicion of infringement, "Trademark infringement emphasizes that the helper knows subjectively (should know and know). If you know it, it constitutes helping infringement. Search engines should be held accountable for helping infringement. For large-scale infringement, the industry chaos It can be considered that search engines, etc. have not fulfilled the basic obligations of information review and are at fault. Administrative law enforcement agencies may impose administrative penalties on them.”
Chen Yinjiang also noticed that in order to fight for more advertising costs, many search engine companies broke the natural search mechanism and used manual intervention to move the search results to the top.
"Since search engine companies earn advertising fees through this kind of'biding rankings', they are obliged to provide users with safe and reliable search engine services. If consumers find false information through the'biding rankings' search engine, consumer property will suffer. For losses, the search engine company shall bear corresponding responsibility for the false information provided."
Chen Yinjiang believes that because "bid ranking" interferes with the principle of natural search, violates the principle of technological neutrality, and also produces actual advertising effects and advertising revenue, the behavior of search engine companies and information publishers should constitute advertising behavior and should be subject to advertising. Method adjustment.
Strengthen law enforcement
Solve the problem of remote registration
Analysys data analysis shows that the size of the intra-city freight market in 2021 is expected to exceed 1.5 trillion yuan.
With the rapid expansion of the freight market, the need to regulate the moving industry market and fully protect intellectual property rights becomes even more urgent.
The chaos in the moving industry has aroused the attention of regulators.
Earlier this year, the Beijing Municipal Administration of Market Supervision issued the "Reminder and Warning of Price Behavior of Operators in the Moving Industry" to remind the operators of the moving industry in this city to strengthen price control, stabilize price levels, and maintain price order.
Reminders and warnings require that each company's official website should clearly publicize the charging standards and refine the service charging items; when consumers call for consultation, they must inform the charging standards and important information that may incur costs in advance and confirm them to avoid price disputes.
So, how to cure the stubborn diseases of the moving industry such as "smashing famous brands"?
Cong Lixian believes that on the one hand, it is necessary to control infringements and strengthen crackdowns. For such widespread and relatively malicious behavior, the strictest top penalties should be adopted to achieve good governance results. At the same time, long-term law enforcement must be adhered to.
For infringements of assistance carried out by search engines, etc., legal liabilities must also be strictly investigated.
Dong Binghe proposed that governance should be carried out from two aspects: one is to strictly rectify the behavior of copycats, and to strengthen the protection of trademarks and trade names; the other is to strengthen the legal responsibilities of search service providers, especially in the case of bidding rankings and pushing advertisements. The search service provider should be directly regarded as the joint infringer and bear joint and several liability with the copycat.
"Most of the academic circles and practice departments regard search service providers as indirect infringers, and only require them to bear limited legal liabilities. This may be reasonable, but under current economic and technological conditions, this view and practice should be changed."
Chen Yinjiang said that search engine service providers should conduct specific reviews of their recommended content, and at the same time, they should distinguish advertising search results from natural search results, and clearly and prominently mark bidding information so that consumers can understand the real information.
In addition, industry insiders also called for reducing the problem of off-site registration of business licenses.
A reporter from the Rule of Law Daily found in an interview that off-site registration is a long-standing problem in the moving industry, which makes the nuisance of high-profile brands in the industry more serious.
The basic routine of a copycat company is to register a well-known local moving company in another place, and then set up a local branch, and then use the name of the copycat branch to fraudulently use the brand of the famous moving company to commit infringement and fraud.
Companies such as Volkswagen Moving and Ant Moving have been plagued by such problems.