Bundled sales are full of tricks and tricks
"Double 11" live broadcast room is full of "lowest prices on the whole network"
□ Sun Tianjiao, a trainee reporter of this newspaper
□ Our reporter Chen Lei
Two mobile phones and one tablet computer are playing live broadcasts of different platforms and different anchors on the screen.
The anchors were either impassioned or heartfelt to introduce various commodities. Dai Ying (pseudonym), a resident of Haidian District, Beijing, sat in front of three devices and carefully recorded the commodities and prices to be purchased in the notebook.
With the sound of "Three, two, one, link up" on the screen, Dai Ying quickly picked up the mobile phone or tablet and operated it. After that, her frowning brows slowly spread out, revealing a contented expression, as if she was short. A victory was won in a matter of seconds.
Dai Ying has been in this state of "three fronts" for nearly two weeks.
At the end of October this year, the "Double 11" activities of major e-commerce platforms began one after another, and the live broadcast room became the main battlefield.
"I feel that the price of the live broadcast room is much lower than the usual price, especially for several big anchors. There are various big discounts in the live broadcast room. There are so many people in the live broadcast room. If I don't guard the point, I may be robbed." Dai Ying said that from the pre-sale deposit payment to the first wave of final payment, during the "Double 11" period, she has bought more than 20 items, all of which were placed in the live broadcast room.
Like Dai Ying, there are not a few consumers who mainly rely on the live broadcast room for product purchase during the "Double 11" period.
The main reason why they choose the live broadcast room is that they think that the live broadcast room has great discounts and will be much cheaper than usual.
Many consumers also said that there are often welfare activities such as "red envelopes rain" and "the top 1000 people who place an order" and other welfare activities in the live broadcast room, which makes people very eager to participate.
However, is live streaming during the "Double 11" really particularly cost-effective?
Is there any basis for the "lowest price on the entire network", "low-price live broadcast" and "below the floor price" that the anchors constantly emphasize?
Is the promise mentioned in the live broadcast event "the top XXX names buy and enjoy the gift" credible?
With these questions in mind, the "Rules of Law Daily" reporter launched an investigation into the phenomenon of live streaming of major e-commerce platforms during the "Double 11" period.
Live streaming is hot during the big promotion
Related issues follow
"Crushers, the annual 'Double 11' is here again." "My dears, I have the lowest price ever for this item, remember to buy it." "Only fans in our live broadcast room have this Welfare, you hurry up and buy it"...
On major e-commerce platforms, the "Double 11" promotion activities are in full swing, and the atmosphere of bringing goods in the live broadcast room is hot.
From the head anchors with tens of millions of fans to many new young anchors, as well as many celebrities and Internet celebrities, they have joined the trend of e-commerce live broadcasts one after another, and frequently appeared on the scene during the "Double 11" period to bring goods.
According to Tmall's "Double 11" data, within the first hour of the sale on October 31, Taobao live broadcasts saw a 600% year-on-year growth rate, and the waist anchor's transaction volume increased by 250% year-on-year.
The data in the live broadcast room of the head anchor is amazing: on October 24, Li Jiaqi’s live broadcast room was watched by 460 million people, and a single live broadcast accumulated 254 million likes.
On October 29, the live broadcast of Dongfang Selection Shandong Haowu was watched in real time by 40 million people, and the total sales reached 120 million yuan.
The popularity of the live broadcast room has spawned a large number of "crazy" consumers.
The reporter browsed multiple social platforms and found that before some e-commerce platforms officially launched the "Double 11" event on October 24, the Internet was already flooded with a large number of "homework posts" for shopping in the live broadcast room, and the prices of the live broadcast room products were compared and analyzed. The "King of Cost-effectiveness" that is most worthy of purchase.
On the evening of October 24th, after the "Double 11" deposit pre-sale event on the e-commerce platform officially started, the popularity of related topics remained high.
Several brands that were quickly sold out in a certain top anchor's live broadcast room have been on the hot search one after another. Many netizens sighed, "The live broadcast room is too popular" "I can't grab it at all, I beg the anchor to let me spend this money. "Fortunately, I bought it. Seeing that everyone said it was difficult to grab, I really regret not buying two more sets."
Ms. Wang, a resident of Hexi District, Tianjin, told reporters that she mainly pays attention to the live broadcast rooms of several leading anchors, because she thinks that they have a large number of fans and can talk about great discounts on products.
These anchors usually preheat the products that will be available that night on their official accounts. She first thinks about what to buy, and waits for the link to snap up in the live broadcast room at night.
"From toilet paper and other daily necessities to skin care products, I'm just stocking up on 'Double 11', and I can buy more than enough things for a year."
The liveliness of the live broadcast room made many people "go up", and after the liveliness subsided, many consumers called "go down" after receiving the goods.
The reporter recently searched for keywords such as "Double 11" and "Live Streaming Room" on a third-party complaint platform and found that there were a large number of consumers complaining.
Judging from the content of the complaints, the problems reported by consumers mainly focus on false propaganda, incorrect goods, non-refundable, non-exchangeable, and non-insured prices.
A consumer posted: "I placed an order in the live broadcast room to buy an air cushion foundation, but when I received the product, I found that it did not match the content of the gift introduced in the live broadcast room. The original purchase link has changed the description, but it can still be downloaded from the live broadcast room. Clicking in is undoubtedly deliberately diverting traffic to mislead consumers. I found the merchant and the anchor customer service for feedback, but the other party did not give a reasonable answer. "
According to Zhang Tao, a partner of Beijing Deheng Law Firm, during the "Double 11" period this year, live streaming has become one of the main methods for merchants to promote, while the promotion rules are becoming more and more complicated, and the variety of live streaming is confusing.
From the original simple promotion to the current live broadcast delivery, it can help merchants to further increase sales, but the false propaganda, quality control problems, and after-sales problems in live broadcast delivery also bring consumers a bad experience. .
Deliberately rendering attractive purchases
Low price promises are less reliable
Many consumers interviewed bluntly stated that the main way they participate in the "Double 11" event is to place orders through the live broadcast room. The picture shows that the live broadcast room offers great discounts.
After watching several live broadcasts recently, the reporter found that price is indeed the main selling point of the anchor when introducing the product.
Many anchors even used words such as "floor price", "the lowest price in the universe" and "below the reserve price" in the live broadcast room to highlight the preferential price of commodities.
Words such as "the last live broadcast at a low price, don't make up when it's outdated", "miss today, at least wait another year to get this good price" and other words frequently appeared in the mouth of the anchor, constantly urging consumers to place orders.
When an anchor launches a low price, it is often accompanied by a large number of "stocking kits". For example, a certain mask needs to buy 10 boxes to enjoy the preferential price; if you only buy one of a certain essence, the price is not much different from the usual price, but if you buy 3, you will be able to enjoy the discount. will be greatly reduced in price.
Some live broadcast rooms will also introduce "additional benefits", such as "deposit free for the first 11 minutes", "additional bonus for the first 1,000 orders", etc.
Consumers with the online name "One Seven" told reporters that sometimes they may not need so many things, but the price of stockpiling sets is much more cost-effective than buying them separately, so even if they may not run out, they will still choose to buy them.
And the activity that the top people place an order with benefits, because of the competitive nature, also makes people want to place an order.
However, in the view of Zhu Xiaojuan, an associate professor at China University of Political Science and Law, there are many things that can be criticized for the hype-like sales model in the live broadcast room of the e-commerce platform.
For example, the form of "stocking suits" is obviously suspected of inducement. Consumers often consume and stock up because of the so-called low prices, and eventually exceed their needs and cause waste.
"Anchors should have a higher duty to check product quality and publicity standards, and anchors with extensive influence should also undertake social responsibilities such as leading rational consumption and avoiding extravagance and waste."
Zhu Xiaojuan believes that the price advantage is one of the competitive advantages of live streaming, and various types of discounts such as gifts and profits mainly depend on the qualifications of “head anchors” to negotiate and lower prices with brand merchants by relying on scale effects, but there are many names. The preferential policies and applicable conditions will consume a lot of energy of consumers, and may not get the expected results.
Promises such as "there are benefits for orders placed under the name of the former XX" are difficult to prove in the follow-up, and it is difficult for consumers to provide evidence, which makes it difficult to claim their rights. These gimmicks are more to attract consumers to place irrational orders, and the so-called promises are often difficult to be fully fulfilled. .
Judging from the main selling point of price alone, the final price of the live broadcast during the "Double 11" period may not be "the lowest on the entire network".
According to media reports, a consumer complaint recently said that a Shiseido Yuewei lotion set was sold in a live broadcast room of a leading anchor, and the price was 1240 yuan after various discounts. The same product can be bought for only 888 yuan, and the price difference is more than 300 yuan.
The Shiseido flagship store replied that it was a system failure and an abnormal order.
After a number of consumers who placed orders in the live broadcast room asked to insure the price, Shiseido removed the link to the product.
At present, the solution given by Shiseido is to uniformly refund orders with abnormal prices and give them appropriate compensation.
In this regard, many netizens questioned, "If the live broadcast room is not the lowest price, why should I rush to buy it in the live broadcast room?" "The anchor price becomes expensive, and consumers should be given an explanation."
In fact, the use of extreme words such as "minimum" and "floor price" is inherently problematic.
Chen Yinjiang, deputy secretary general of the Consumer Rights Protection Law Research Association of the China Law Society, introduced that the Advertising Law clearly stipulates that the use of extreme words such as "highest" and "best" is prohibited. Advertising uses data, statistics, survey results, abstracts, Quotes and other quoted content shall be true and accurate, and the source shall be indicated.
If the cited content has the scope of application and validity period, it should be clearly stated.
The Law on the Protection of Consumer Rights and Interests stipulates that the information provided by business operators to consumers about commodities or services shall be true and comprehensive, and shall not make false or misleading publicity.
The act of promoting "the lowest in the entire network" and "the lowest in the universe" in the live broadcast room is obviously suspected of violating the relevant provisions of the Advertising Law and the Consumer Rights Protection Law, and is suspected of false and exaggerated propaganda, which damages consumers' right to know and right to choose.
Experts interviewed believe that although it is reasonable to use live broadcast rooms for product promotion, if the price of live broadcast rooms is too different from the price of consumers’ own purchases, the price of live broadcast rooms will form a monopoly, which will not only damage the legitimate rights and interests of consumers, but also be detrimental to consumers. The online e-commerce platform develops itself.
Commodity quality problems continue
The anchor who brings the goods is to blame
In the interview, some experts said that although the live streaming mode brings consumers a new consumption experience, as a new online transaction mode, the live streaming mode involves many business entities and complicated legal relationships. The relevant laws and regulations are not clear and specific enough, and damage to the rights and interests of consumers has occurred from time to time.
Chen Yinjiang said that some platforms do not strictly review the qualifications of settled merchants, the daily management is not in place, the after-sales service channels are not smooth, and the after-sales service personnel are not professional.
In particular, some short video platforms have clearly opened the business entry function and actually carried out e-commerce business activities, but they believe that they are only video platforms that provide social entertainment services, so as to avoid legal responsibilities as e-commerce platforms.
Some anchors with goods lack the awareness of integrity and law-abiding, and in order to realize the realization of traffic, they do not hesitate to exaggerate publicity, sell fake and shoddy products, or deceive consumers by tragic and miserable sales.
Some live broadcast sellers believe that they belong to small and sporadic transactions, so they do not need to go through the registration process, so they do not have to bear the legal responsibility of the operator.
As the main character in the live broadcast room and the main explainer of the product attributes, if there is a problem with the product in the follow-up, consumers need to protect their rights, and the anchor bears the brunt.
On October 28, a netizen posted that an anchor with tens of millions of fans on a short video platform had quality problems in the instant foods such as buns and bread noodles sold in the live broadcast room, such as the total number of bacterial colonies and excessive additives. Relevant departments punished, and there are even problems with some children's food.
Subsequently, the anchor responded and admitted that the food manufacturer did have problems and was punished, but the products it sold did not belong to the same batch. In the future, the selection of products will be strengthened and the quality will be strictly controlled.
If consumers buy goods in the live broadcast room, and the products they receive have problems such as non-guaranteed prices, inconsistent gifts and promises, poor product quality, and delayed delivery, will the host be held responsible?
Zhang Tao said that the identity of the host in the live broadcast room is relatively complicated, and whether the host should take responsibility and what responsibility it should take depends on the situation.
If the anchor produces and sells it by itself, when consumers claim their own rights, the anchor will bear civil liabilities such as returns, compensation for losses, and may also bear punitive damages.
If the anchor and the merchant are in a labor contract relationship, the merchant generally bears the corresponding responsibility for consumers claiming their own rights and interests.
If the anchor and the merchant are in a contractual relationship, then the anchor may take into account the roles of advertising operators, advertising publishers and even advertising spokespersons.
Zhang Tao believes that if there is false propaganda, the anchor may bear the corresponding legal responsibility.
For false advertisements of goods or services related to the life and health of consumers, causing damage to consumers, the anchor shall bear joint and several liability with the merchant.
If the false advertisement of goods or services other than those related to the life and health of consumers causes damage to consumers, if the anchor knows or should have known that the advertisement is false, but still designs, produces, represents, publishes, recommends, or proves, it shall also be jointly and severally liable with the merchant responsibility.
If the information expressed or conveyed by the anchor when recommending products in the live broadcast room is excessively exaggerated or even distorts the facts, it may also violate the anti-unfair competition law and need to bear corresponding responsibilities.
Live streaming needs to be standardized
Fully implement platform responsibility
In fact, the chaos of live streaming has already existed, and these chaos have become more prominent in the hot atmosphere of the "Double 11" and other big promotion activities.
In order to regulate related chaos, relevant state departments and local governments have successively issued relevant policies and regulations.
In April 2021, seven departments including the National Cyberspace Administration of China and the Ministry of Public Security jointly issued the "Administrative Measures for Online Live Marketing (Trial)", clarifying that live marketing platforms should establish and improve the registration and cancellation of accounts and live marketing functions, information security management, and marketing behavior norms. , minors protection, consumer rights protection, personal information protection, network and data security management and other mechanisms and measures.
The local standard of Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province "Specifications for Live Streaming E-commerce Marketing and After-sales Service" was officially implemented on October 14 this year. From the two dimensions of marketing and after-sales, it clarified the services of anchors, live broadcast marketers, and live broadcast marketers who carry out online live broadcast marketing activities. Qualifications, requirements, responsibilities and obligations of related parties such as institutions, live broadcast marketing platforms, live broadcast studio operators and merchants, especially the definition of virtual anchors and inclusion of the standard scope.
It is worth noting that market supervision departments and consumer associations in many places across the country have recently issued documents to "cool down" the hot live broadcast.
For example, the Market Supervision Bureau of Ma'anshan City, Anhui Province issued a reminder that when consumers participate in live broadcast shopping, they should give priority to the formal live broadcast platform. advertising, and do not be misled by the advertising of obviously low-priced products.
Before placing an order, you should understand the source, function, quality, effect and price of the products recommended by the anchor, and understand the real information of the products. Do not blindly follow the trend to buy and make impulse purchases.
After placing an order, it is necessary to retain information such as business information, live broadcast links, order vouchers, etc., so that you can contact the after-sales service in time for problems.
During the promotion period, the popularity of live streaming continued to rise.
Regarding the chaos of various live broadcasts, many experts interviewed said that a multi-pronged approach is still needed to strengthen rectification.
Zhang Tao believes that, first of all, we should improve the rules and regulations system, and further clarify the relationship between anchors, e-commerce platforms, live broadcast platforms and other subjects and their responsibilities, so as to fill the possible legal gaps.
Secondly, relevant regulatory and law enforcement departments must strictly enforce the law and establish an irregular inspection mechanism for live broadcast platforms.
Chen Yinjiang suggested that platform responsibilities must be clarified and compacted.
Whether it is a traditional e-commerce platform or an emerging short video platform, as long as it provides online business venues, transaction matching, information release and other service functions for live streaming activities, it must fulfill the legal responsibilities of e-commerce platform operators.
Relevant platforms should not only improve the qualification review of anchors and sellers and platform rules and regulations in strict accordance with the requirements of relevant laws, regulations and policy documents, but also strengthen the daily management of anchors and merchants on the platform, warn the risks of private transactions in a prominent way, and smooth the flow of consumers. Complaint channel for rights protection, and continuously strengthen the construction of after-sales service system.
For the anchor group, Chen Yinjiang believes that as long as they are engaged in live broadcast and delivery business activities, they must bear the statutory responsibility of the operator and strictly abide by the relevant business laws and regulations.
Especially the head anchors, every move will have a strong demonstration effect, and they must take the lead in abiding by laws and regulations, abide by social order and good customs, and do not make false exaggeration and misleading publicity, and do not induce consumers to trade privately.
"Consumers need to improve their awareness of self-protection and consume rationally." Chen Yinjiang said that consumers should keep evidence such as live video, chat records, payment vouchers, etc., and contact merchants and platforms to negotiate and solve problems in time.
If the negotiation fails, you can complain to the consumer association or the market supervision department, and if necessary, you can apply for arbitration or file a lawsuit in the court to protect your legitimate rights and interests in accordance with the law.