"19.9 yuan to use a Huawei mobile phone", "open the box, you will get an Apple product", "9.9 yuan to give it a try, a bicycle becomes a motorcycle"... At present, blind box products are popular among young people, and there are many kinds of online blind box apps.

Banyuetan's investigation found that some online blind box applications have hidden mysteries, causing disputes such as induced consumption, false price quotations, and product fraud, infringing on the legitimate rights and interests of consumers.

It's cool to open the box, but it falls behind

  According to the incomplete statistics of the reporter Banyuetan, there are as many as 100 online blind box apps on the Internet.

On the black cat complaint platform, there are more than 20,000 complaints involving blind boxes, most of which are related to online blind box apps, involving various types of disputes.

  ——The value does not match, "picking up the leak" becomes "entering the pit".

"I bought 7 blind boxes with a price of 79 yuan on a blind box app. The price of the backpack I drew was 99 yuan on the blind box app, but it was less than 30 yuan on the e-commerce platform. The headphones I got It shows 79 yuan, but the official authorized store shows the price as 29.9 yuan." A blind box player told Banyuetan reporters.

  Mr. Zhang from Sichuan also had a similar experience. He purchased a blind box worth 50 yuan on a blind box app, claiming to be able to issue goods ranging from 50 yuan to 9999 yuan.

"The product that was issued was actually an ear-picking spoon, and it was sold for a few yuan on the e-commerce platform." Mr. Zhang said.

  ——The goods are not on the board, and the "Oolong" blind box appears from time to time.

"I opened a blind box and opened a loneliness." Mr. Yan from Jiangsu said that after downloading a blind box app, he opened a blind box of more than 500 yuan, and opened a ring with a price of more than 4,000 yuan on the official website. The product was dumbfounded: there was only one "nail" in the carton sent.

  In addition, some users said, "The smart scales sent out were pillows, and the customer service did not reply or deal with them." "The blind boxes of Apple and Huawei mobile phones were opened, and an old-fashioned Nokia brick machine was sent. The platform said no. Support 7 days no reason to return".

  ——It is difficult to distinguish between true and false, and fakes are genuine.

Mr. Liu from Guangdong said that he opened a brand of jewelry on a blind box platform, and the official website sold for several thousand yuan.

Mr. Liu felt strange. After visiting the shipping address, he could not find the relevant enterprises and warehouses.

After that, Mr. Liu sent the jewelry to a professional appraisal agency to check the authenticity.

The test results showed that "the samples submitted for inspection did not meet the technical information and process characteristics announced by the brand/manufacturer".

  "I spent more than 800 yuan on a blind box app to open a brand of gold flakes. After receiving it, I wanted to use a lighter to ignite it to 'refine it', but I didn't expect the 'golden flakes' to burn directly." A complainant told Ban Yue Tan reporter said.

Blind box coats become illegal figurines

  Banyuetan reporters found that in some blind box applications, offenders made blind box coats an illegal fig leaf by operating behind the scenes and setting unfair after-sales rules.

  Shanghai Minhang police recently destroyed a criminal gang suspected of using mobile phone software to commit fraud. Fake blind box opening is one of the gang's illegal profit-making methods.

"On the 'Koi Blind Box' and 'Fun Blind Box' apps involved in the case, there is no possibility for consumers to win big prizes. The suspect can set the background of the software, no matter how much the user recharges and how many times the blind box is opened, the 'explosion' will appear. The probability of the thousand-yuan prize is 0." Dai Jiawei, the police officer who hosted the case, told Banyuetan reporters.

  Qin Yubin, a senior partner at Shanghai Shanfa Law Firm, believes that such apps may be involved in various crimes. If the actual announced winning rate of the item is much lower than the real winning rate of the system, and the crime amount reaches a certain standard, it may be suspected of false advertising.

If this type of blind box cannot make the buyer win the lottery at all, so that a large number of users mistakenly think that they can get their favorite prize and make a "purchase", it meets the constitutive elements of the crime of fraud.

  Dai Jiawei said that the above-mentioned illegal gang also has a customer complaint team composed of more than a dozen people. Only when it encounters the so-called "hard users" who have repeatedly complained to multiple parties, the customer complaint team will agree to refund.

Banyuetan reporter found that the relevant agreements of many blind box apps all state that blind box products "cannot be returned in principle", "does not support 7-day unreasonable returns", "once opened, no refunds" and other relevant regulations.

  "Since 2020, lawsuits caused by blind boxes have not been uncommon." Assistant Judge He Xiaotong of Shanghai No. 2 Intermediate People's Court said that some merchants put three non-products, defective products or slow-moving products into the market in the form of blind boxes. , the special attribute of the blind box "see the difference", has become an excuse for unscrupulous merchants not to return and a fig leaf for problem products.

  The person in charge of a blind box software development company in Zhengzhou told Banyuetan reporters that the price of developing a blind box app is between 20,000 and 40,000 yuan. After that, as long as a technology company is registered, it can be operated on major platforms.

Banyuetan reporters inquired about the industrial and commercial information of the companies that belong to various blind box applications and found that some companies did not actually sell electronic products, cosmetics, jewelry and other items in their business scope.

  "According to relevant laws and regulations, the entities engaged in business activities beyond the business scope, depending on the seriousness of the circumstances, will be warned, their illegal gains will be confiscated, and corresponding fines will be imposed." Qin Yubin said.

Clear the supervision blind spot of the network blind box

  Many experts said that the current network blind box has certain supervision blind spots, and external supervision should be combined with platform operation self-discipline to prevent the network blind box from becoming a network "leek box".

  —— Draw a "red line" for blind box operation.

In January this year, the Shanghai Municipal Administration for Market Regulation issued the "Shanghai Blind Box Business Activities Compliance Guidelines", which stipulates that the actual value of blind box products should be basically the same as their selling price.

The price of a single blind box product is generally not higher than RMB 200.

It is not allowed to refuse or deliberately delay the distribution of blind boxes by means of discount, repurchase, exchange, etc.

  Li Gang, a professor at the Department of Investment and Insurance at Shanghai Normal University, said that the "blind pet box" and "blind food box" that appeared before have caused a lot of controversy.

Platform operations cannot "blind boxes for everything". We should establish a "white list" of commodity categories in blind boxes, improve the information disclosure system such as supply, quality, and transportation, and improve after-sales complaint mechanisms to prevent lawbreakers from using blind box vests to illegally operate and evade Supervision.

  ——Strengthen the online supervision of blind box applications.

Qin Yubin believes that compared to offline, online blind box operators are more likely to induce consumption in disguised form by changing the extraction results through background manipulation and arbitrarily adjusting the extraction probability.

"The market supervision department should strengthen supervision in a targeted manner. The platform should keep a complete record of the extraction probability setting and extraction results. At the same time, establish and improve the online dynamic inspection and supervision mechanism, and rectify and close the commercial entities that do not meet the business requirements within a limited time." Qin Yubin Say.

  - Close the gate for illegal use of drainage.

Yan Huaizhi, an associate professor at the School of Computer Science, Beijing Institute of Technology, said that the relevant large-scale platforms should be responsible for keeping the soil, and conduct substantive examination and compliance of all kinds of apps on their platforms. , if necessary, remove the app or even blacklist it.

If the operation of the app is suspected of illegal and criminal activities, it should actively cooperate with the national network information, public security, industry and information technology and other departments to deal with relevant illegal and criminal acts in accordance with the law, and resolutely crack down on it.

  Banyue Talks Reporter: Lan Tianming