A 10-pound sugar orange with a price of 14.6 yuan is actually a pound; a racket with a price of 38.88 yuan is sold for badminton...
When will some e-commerce companies stop misleading consumers by attracting traffic at low prices and selling at high prices?
According to our newspaper (Reporter Tang Shu), the price of 10 kilograms of sugar oranges on the promotional page is 14.6 yuan, but they are actually 1 kilogram tasting packs.
Recently, many consumers have reported that they encountered low-price traps set by merchants when shopping online, and the actual purchase price was much higher than the price displayed on the store's promotion page.
The reporter saw on an e-commerce platform that the main image of a merchant's promotional page showed "Authentic Guangdong sugar oranges, 10 kilograms in stock", with "Limited time price for new customers 14.6 yuan" marked below.
When the reporter clicked in to purchase, he found that the price of 14.6 yuan was actually a 1-pound trial pack, while up to 9-pound selected packs could be selected, and the price was 45.56 yuan.
The merchant explained: "You need to select specifications when placing an order. I'm sorry for causing you misunderstanding."
Ms. Zhang, a Beijing consumer, said that she always sees this kind of sales routine when shopping online. Merchants display the cheapest price on the home page, but when you actually click on it, you can see prices in a variety of categories.
Recently, when she was shopping for a well-known brand of badminton racket on an e-commerce platform, the racket with a price tag of 38.88 yuan attracted her attention: "Is there such a cheap price?" She clicked on the purchase page and found out that 38.88 yuan was a badminton racket. The price, while a real racket costs hundreds of dollars.
Some consumers said: "The merchants used false propaganda to attract traffic and wasted my shopping time."
In the first half of 2023, the Shenzhen Consumer Council conducted an online experience survey on 19 e-commerce platforms and found that 11 e-commerce platforms had low-price inducement problems.
On the Black Cat complaint platform, many consumers also reported the problem of merchants’ low prices to attract traffic.
In addition, reporters found on social media that many bloggers shared about how to set up "yin and yang SKU (inventory unit)" to attract traffic at low prices: "For example, the SKU sets the price of a pair of insoles at 10 yuan and leather shoes at 2,000 yuan. Users see The main picture shows leather shoes, but the price is 10 yuan for insoles. Once users click in to take a look, the number of clicks will increase, and the data will increase, making it easier to increase exposure."
Zhao Liangshan, a lawyer at Shaanxi Hengda Law Firm, said that businesses selling products at low prices to lure customers and sell them at high prices are essentially misleading consumers and are suspected of false advertising.
According to the provisions of the Consumer Rights Protection Law, the E-Commerce Law and other laws, operators must provide consumers with information about the quality, performance, usage, validity period, etc. of goods or services that is true and comprehensive and must not be false or misleading. publicity.
At the same time, when consumers provide the platform with preliminary evidence of being defrauded by the merchant, or when the platform knows that the merchant has committed infringement, the platform should prevent the infringement from continuing, otherwise it will be jointly and severally liable.
“Platforms should carefully review merchants’ qualifications and credit reports, provide consumers with merchants’ real names and other information, and take necessary measures if merchants are found to infringe upon consumers’ legitimate rights and interests, such as blocking, delisting, etc. Market supervision departments should strengthen supervision of platforms and merchants. supervision, so as to avoid the occurrence of similar incidents." Liu Junhai, a professor at the Law School of Renmin University of China, said that when consumers find that their legitimate rights and interests have been infringed, they should retain relevant evidence such as purchase records and communication records, and report it to the Consumers Association or market supervision Complain to the department or go directly to court.
Tang Shu