National People's Congress Deputies Suggest Adding Blind Box Sales Content to Minors Protection Law

Draw a legal red line for the blind box market

　　□ Our reporter Zhao Chenxiwen / photo

　　"Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what the next one will taste like." This classic quote from "Forrest Gump" is now regarded as a "motto" by many blind box lovers: "If you don't remove one Box, you never know what a hidden item looks like."

　　In recent years, the blind box culture that started with trendy toys has been "out of the circle", from blind boxes for toys to blind boxes for stationery, and even blind boxes for pets... In this era of "blind boxes for everything", all kinds of chaos emerge one after another. , In order to curb the barbaric growth of the blind box market, Shanghai took the lead.

　　On January 12, the Shanghai Municipal Administration for Market Regulation issued the "Shanghai Blind Box Business Activities Compliance Guidelines", which is the country's first blind box business activity guidelines.

　　Guo Weihong, head of the Network and Data Legal Affairs Center of Yingke Shanghai Internet Legal Affairs Department, who participated in the drafting of the guidelines, pointed out in an interview with a reporter from Rule of Law Daily that although the guidelines are not legally enforceable, by sorting out the upper-level laws involving the field of blind boxes, The business red line is set, which has guiding significance for operators.

In the future, on this basis, we should study and introduce special legislation for blind boxes as soon as possible, so that blind boxes can develop within the track of the rule of law.

curb excessive marketing

　　The last time the blind box was on the hot search was because of a well-known catering company, KFC.

　　Ice and snow sundaes, good night fries, full burgers... Recently, the limited-edition blind box launched by KFC and Bubble Mart has caused a frenzy.

This set of blind boxes has a total of 6 ordinary models and 1 hidden model. Consumers can get a blind box when they buy a package of 99 yuan.

　　In order to get a hidden item with a probability of 1/72, someone spent 10,000 yuan to buy 106 blind box packages at one time.

Some people have started a "food substitute" business, with the slogan "Blind box belongs to you, give me the calories", to solve the "worry" for those who want to collect blind boxes but are afraid of gaining weight.

　　On January 12, the China Consumers Association issued a document "calling out" that KFC used blind boxes to induce excessive food consumption, which should be boycotted.

　　The Anti-Food Waste Law, which will take effect on April 29, 2021, requires that catering service operators should consciously resist food waste, remind consumers to consume in moderation, and not induce or mislead consumers to consume excessively, resulting in food waste.

　　In this regard, the China Consumers Association believes that KFC, as a food operator, uses the limited-edition blind box sales method to induce and condone consumers irrational and excessive purchase of food packages, which is contrary to public order, good customs and the spirit of the law.

　　In fact, long before the blind box of KFC, the blind boxes of milk tea launched by many milk tea shops have been questioned as wasting food.

　　According to Liu Junhai, a professor at the Law School of Renmin University of China, the products sold by catering companies such as KFC and milk tea shops are limited-edition products, and consumers will buy them on demand and eat them immediately. "Means to stimulate consumption, and excessive purchases will inevitably lead to food waste, which violates the relevant provisions of the Anti-Food Waste Law and should be boycotted.

　　The guidelines issued by Shanghai this time also limit marketing speculation, requiring blind box operators not to carry out financial-related marketing, not to engage in market-making behavior in the secondary market, and not to engage in sky-high price speculation, excessive marketing, and starvation marketing.

　　Guo Weihong took KFC's blind box as an example, saying that there has always been a promotion method to get toys by eating a set meal. The reason why switching to a blind box will attract rush purchases is related to the "high value" behind the blind box.

　　The reporter noticed that the price of the hidden "ace fried chicken" in this blind box has reached 900 yuan on the second-hand platform, which is nearly 10 times higher than the original price.

　　In Guo Weihong's view, the core of curbing the occurrence of such incidents should be to control the hype and excessive marketing behind the blind box. The price is rational, and the consumption will also tend to be rational.

Delineate product red lines

　　The ridicule that "everything can be a blind box" has now become a marketing "truth". After the blind box market is hot, countless alternative blind boxes "rise".

　　Put the contact information of men and women in the blind box, and use the method of breaking the blind box to randomly match the dating information.

　　"Take off the single-blind box" is doing "love business", and "pet blind box" is completely a "blood business".

　　In May 2021, a citizen of Chengdu, Sichuan found that a courier company was mailing live cats and dogs, and more than 160 pets were packed into airtight courier boxes, some of which were dead...

　　In the face of such crazy blind boxes, e-commerce platforms have made prohibitive regulations.

The Taobao Blind Box/Blessing Bag Commodity Management Specification, which took effect on December 21, 2021, stipulates that living pet blind boxes, single-leaf blind boxes, express parcel blind boxes, and low-priced blind boxes that may cause consumer complaints or disputes, etc. Selling on the platform is prohibited.

　　The Shanghai Guidelines also delineate the red line of blind box products - products that are clearly prohibited from sale and circulation by laws and regulations shall not be sold in the form of blind boxes.

Commodities that have strict requirements on sales qualification, storage and transportation, conditions of use, etc., shall not be sold in blind boxes, such as special foods, medicines, etc.

　　"The statement that 'everything can be a blind box' is wrong. Blind boxes are essentially a commodity, but some blind boxes are not commodities." The law clearly stipulates that no organization or individual may illegally collect, use, process, or transmit other people's personal information, and may not illegally trade, provide or disclose other people's personal information. Therefore, buying and selling personal information itself is an illegal act, which greatly increases the risk of personal information leakage .

　　Although pets can be sold, they have extremely strict requirements for transportation. Among the items prohibited from delivery or entrainment in the mail stipulated in Article 33 of the Implementation Rules of the Postal Law, there are "various live animals".

　　"Blind boxes are not legal 'blind areas'." Liu Junhai pointed out that blind box products must be legal, and this red line of sales must be followed.

Clear probability information

　　Chen Shaohua, who likes to collect lighters, spent 1,200 yuan on an online shopping platform to buy a blind box of lighters that the merchant claimed to be worth more than 2,000 yuan. After buying it, he found that there were "obsolete goods" that no one wanted, and the value was less than 200 yuan.

　　There are not a few people who have the same experience as Chen Shaohua. Some businesses use the randomness of blind boxes as a means of "clearing goods".

　　Wu Yandong, deputy director of the Anti-Unfair Competition Division of the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Market Supervision, pointed out that the market supervision department found in the investigation that there is a phenomenon of "stuffing" in the blind box products currently on the market. Information such as the number of deposits and the probability of withdrawing hidden funds is suspected of infringing on the legitimate rights and interests of consumers.

　　The Consumer Rights Protection Law clarifies that consumers have the right to know the real situation of the goods they buy, use or the services they receive.

The Shanghai Guidelines also require blind box operators to publicize information such as commodity types, box extraction rules, the number of commodities placed, and the probability of hidden money extraction, fully inform consumers, and retain complete probability settings, extraction results, distribution records, etc. for future reference. .

　　"Protecting consumers' right to know in blind box sales is also the key to preventing blind boxes from becoming illegal gambling." Guo Weihong explained that blind boxes have a gambling-like element of luck, and the key to avoiding slipping to illegal gambling is to protect consumers' right to know. , the probability is announced; the second is that there can be no "empty" behavior, that is, empty boxes appear, so the guidelines also specifically require merchants not to set empty boxes.

　　In addition, Guo Weihong pointed out that when the gap between the actual value of the product and the market value is too large, it may also lead to the alienation of legal business behavior into illegal behavior.

　　proposed legislation

　　The crazy blind box makes adults "can't stop", and it is even more difficult for minors to resist.

　　The most "poisoning" of minors is the blind stationery box. The reporter randomly visited several stationery stores. There are special shelves for the blind stationery boxes. There are separate blind boxes for pens and erasers. Blind box set for stationery.

　　Wang Jiajuan, deputy to the National People's Congress and teacher of the No. 1 Senior High School in Liaoyang City, Liaoning Province, has contacted many students who are keen to buy blind boxes for stationery. She found that the original intention of buying blind boxes was not to get stationery, but to collect sets or get hidden money. , which leads to the blind consumption of minors and forms a bad consumption concept.

　　What worries Wang Jiajuan even more is that this "blogging" sales method may increase children's "gambling" nature and encourage speculation.

　　Lu Yongmei, deputy to the Shanghai Municipal People's Congress and deputy director of the Shanghai Jinshan District Market Supervision and Administration Bureau, suggested to study the blind box consumption restriction measures for minors, so as to avoid minors with low ability to identify market risks from being improperly induced by the "gambling" factor. "Blind Road".

　　The Shanghai Guidelines have established a protection mechanism for minors. The Civil Code divides the age of persons with no capacity for civil conduct and those with limited capacity for civil conduct as the standard, requiring blind box operators not to sell blind boxes to minors under the age of 8; Minors over the age of one year who sell blind box products should obtain the consent of the relevant guardian through on-site inquiry or online identification.

　　"The Law on the Protection of Minors stipulates six major protections to strengthen minors' family, school, society, network, government, and justice. Regarding the impact of blind boxes on minors, in addition to parents and schools, government departments should educate them. In addition to strengthening supervision, judicial protection should also keep up." Wang Jiajuan suggested that the law on the protection of minors should add content on the sale of blind boxes for minors, and provide for blind box products, sales rules, and age restrictions.

In terms of content, we can learn from the Shanghai guidelines that blind boxes under the age of 8 are prohibited from being sold, and those over the age of 8 must be ratified by their guardians.

In addition, for blind boxes that may be sold to minors, special regulations should be formulated in terms of themes, sales rules, etc., such as no so-called hidden models, and each category should not have too many styles.

　　Liu Junhai agrees with this. He believes that in the field of protection of minors, advocacy alone is not enough. It must be guaranteed by law, and restrictive regulations must be introduced to prevent minors from indulging in blind boxes.

In the long run, he suggested that all localities can learn from Shanghai's experience, first introduce local guidelines and norms for blind boxes, and on the basis of summarizing local experiences, introduce national legislation for blind box economy, so that blind box economy can develop soundly on the track of rule of law.