● The tricycles on the street sell durians at a special price, and the 9.6 catties durian weighed on the spot was only 6.2 catties at home; the hairy belly marked 120 grams in the hot pot restaurant was actually only 82 grams, and the beef marked 200 grams was actually only 142 grams
● The reporter recently learned through a large number of interviews and investigations that from offline to online, from fresh food to cooked food, from roadside stalls to brand stores, there are different routines and varying degrees of shortages. During
● There are clear laws and regulations on the use of "ghost scales" by merchants and their behaviors. Merchants not only have to bear corresponding civil liabilities, but may also be subject to administrative penalties such as warnings, fines, and even revocation of business licenses.
● Create a governance model ruled by law, improve punitive compensation rules in legislation, strengthen supervision in law enforcement to form a joint force, intensify punishment in the judiciary, and at the same time strengthen the awareness of law-abiding operations of businesses and the awareness of consumers' self-rights protection, and break the market order. Stubborn illness
□ Reporter Zhang Shoukun Han Dandong Zhou Bin
The tripe marked 120 grams is actually only 82 grams, and the tripe marked 200 grams is actually claimed to be only 126 grams; beef and mutton marked 200 grams, some stores actually say 172 grams, and some stores only 142 grams... This is In February of this year, a blogger "superB" with over 15 million fans on a short video platform recorded a scene when he went to many hot pot restaurants in Shanghai to experience it.
"I didn't choose which brand of hot pot restaurant. I went to experience these five hot pot restaurants on the same day, and only one of them had enough weight. The two problems are so serious." "SuperB too" recalled in an interview with a reporter from the "Rule of Law Daily" recently that the merchants faced doubts and used various reasons to evade, such as water on the ingredients, the meat-cutter is new, and the ingredients have upgraded the menu. Not updated in time etc.
The experience of "super B too" is not a special case.
The reporter recently learned through a large number of visits and investigations that from offline to online, from fresh to cooked food, from roadside stalls to brand stores, there are different routines and varying degrees of shortages. Electronic scales with hands and feet) hidden in the meantime.
Many interviewed experts said that to solve the problems of "ghost scales" and the lack of weight, we should create a legal governance model, improve the rules of punitive compensation in legislation, strengthen supervision in law enforcement to form a joint force, increase punishment in justice, and at the same time Strengthen businesses' awareness of law-abiding operations and consumers' awareness of self-rights protection, get rid of this chronic disease that disrupts market order, and create a good atmosphere for honest operations.
Ghost scales appear frequently at roadside stalls in aquatic products shops
Six catties of durian weighed nearly ten catties
"Thailand golden pillow durian, special price 19.9 yuan/jin." Not long ago, Liu Beibei (pseudonym), a resident of Changshu City, Jiangsu Province, was on his way home from work when he saw such a promotional advertisement on a street vendor selling durian on a tricycle.
Feeling that the price was much cheaper than the supermarket, she stopped and picked one.
One weighing, 9.6 catties.
The boss was very enthusiastic and said to help her peel the durian skin, and if the meat inside was found to be broken, he would replace it on the spot.
"I thought the boss was very kind at the time. But because I wanted to try using durian shells to make soup, I didn't ask the boss to open the durian. As a result, when I got home, my mother said that the weight was wrong as soon as I started it. It was only 6.2 catties." Liu Beibei said.
Liu Beibei picked up the durian and rushed back to talk to the stall owner, but found that the person had long since disappeared.
She posted her experience on the Internet, and immediately attracted a lot of people complaining. Many people said that they had also been cheated in the same way: the stall owner opened the durian on the spot and left the durian shell. Can't prove there is a problem.
Another netizen said that the stall owner used a "ghost scale". He once brought the scale to buy durian from a roadside stall, but the stall owner never sold it to him.
During the interview, many consumers said that they had encountered "ghost scales", and "ghost scales" abound in life.
Wu Yun from Linyi, Shandong told reporters that in March this year, when he went to a seafood stall in a night market in Qingdao to buy seafood, he found that the customers in front of him didn’t order much but the price was high. When it was his turn, he joked with the boss, “You Are the scales accurate?"
The boss said without hesitation that he would be sure.
He quickly took out his mobile phone and put it on the scale, which showed over 220 grams, while the actual weight of his mobile phone was about 170 grams.
The boss's face instantly "blackened".
Wu Yun told the reporter that with this experience, he would always carry an electronic scale with him when he went shopping. Two days ago, when he was buying strawberries at the subway entrance, he found that 2 catties of strawberries were only 1.7 catties.
The stall owner glanced at him and added a bunch of strawberries.
"Carrying an electronic scale with you is much more effective than negotiating with others, but there are still a small number of people who do this in their lives." Wu Yun said, especially roadside stalls, market stalls, and night market stalls are highly mobile, and people also If you don’t go there often, you may be tricked by some unscrupulous merchants without knowing it. It is difficult to protect your rights afterwards, and often the bad money is not too much, so many people don’t bother to pursue it.
Sun Jing (pseudonym) in Beijing also had a similar experience.
Sun Jing's family lives outside Beijing's East Fourth Ring Road, and there is a seafood market nearby.
She has gone to buy seafood 3 times, and each time she encountered the phenomenon of lack of weight and lack of weight—the first two times were "ghost scales", one time she bought it home and found that there was a problem, and the other time she directly found a problem with a fair scale in the market , I went to the merchant and refunded 90 yuan; the third time was that there was a lot of water in the bag, and the weight was much smaller after pouring it out. In the end, the merchant refunded her 20 yuan.
"It's too difficult and tiring to buy seafood without being scammed." Sun Jing said with emotion.
In addition to street vendors, seafood and aquatic products stores, many shops such as hot pot and Malatang will mark the food weight or calculate the price by weighing. Recently, the reporter took a newly bought kitchen scale and randomly walked into a Malatang restaurant in a shopping mall in Heping District, Tianjin. , After ordering, it was found that the weight difference was about 10%.
The electronic scale in the Malatang shop showed that the dish the reporter selected weighed 420 grams, but the reporter found that the dish weighed only 385 grams after weighing it with his own scale.
The reporter noticed that the electronic scales used in the store did not have quality inspection labels.
Faced with the reporter's question about the portion size, the boss seemed a little flustered, and kept glancing at the customers who were dining.
Afterwards, the boss found four or five vegetable trays in the store, adjusted them back and forth on the electronic scale, and finally explained: "Today, on Saturday, I asked my child to come to visit the store. He may not know how to use the electronic scale. What's the key..." After re-measurement, the ingredients weighed 380 grams.
Sun Jun from Suzhou, Anhui has run a live poultry and fresh fish slaughter shop for many years. He told reporters that when he went to a specialty store to buy an electronic scale, some merchants asked him if he wanted to adjust the scale. Become a "ghost scale": "The unit price, weight and total price are all correct. Just press a few keys in sequence, and a 1 kg weight will be displayed on it. 1.1 kg, or even more, will return to normal after restarting."
Sun Jun said that he only wanted to do business in a down-to-earth manner, and he did not choose "ghost scales", but there are "ghost scales" around him, especially live poultry and fresh fish. Using "ghost scales" is not easy to be found, because "killing After the treatment, who knows how much the original weight is, there is no evidence for it, and it is common to be a few hundred grams lighter."
Sun Jun said that when he entered the fish, he observed that when the electronic scale is normal, there are small triangles in the left corners of the first and second bright small cells on the left of the screen. If there is no small triangle in the second cell , it is very likely that this electronic scale has been tampered with.
But if you are not in the industry, you will hardly notice this.
It is common to be short of weight when shopping online
Fresh fruit snacks are the hardest hit areas
With the rise of e-commerce platforms and live streaming, online consumption has become an important part of people's lives.
The reporter's investigation found that online shopping is also very common, and fresh fruits and snacks are the hardest hit areas.
On the black cat complaint platform, the reporter searched with the keyword "missing catties and less Liang", and there were more than 4,500 related complaints, many of which were related to online shopping for snacks.
For this reason, the reporter recently placed an order for 4 snacks at 4 different stores on an e-commerce platform. After receiving all the snacks on March 13, they weighed and found that 3 of them were short of catties.
Specifically: 500 grams of dried jackfruit of a certain brand weighs 406 grams, 500 grams of almonds of a certain brand weighs 430 grams, and 500 grams of dried pork of a certain brand weighs 443 grams.
The above weights are all weighed without removing the package and the desiccant in the bag, and the difference is farther if the net weight is calculated.
It is worth noting that the introduction pages of these stores all say "×old store", and two snacks show that they have sold more than 100,000 pieces.
It is a little surprising that when the reporter took pictures and reported the shortage to the customer service of the three stores, the three stores happily proposed compensation for the difference.
But when the reporter said that he hoped to get three times the compensation in accordance with Article 55 of the Consumer Protection Law (less than 500 yuan, 500 yuan), the other party refused to accept it.
After the reporter reported the situation to the e-commerce platform, the other party called and said that the merchant's lack of money and two things would be included in the integrity assessment, and traffic restrictions and penalties would be imposed on the merchant according to the platform's regulations.
At the same time, help the reporter to apply for after-sales service of refund and non-return.
In fact, on social platforms, a large number of consumers reported that online shopping is short of two catties. In extreme cases, "I bought 4 catties of candy, but I found it was only 1.5 catties", "I ordered two catties of wild vegetables, and I only got half the weight" and so on.
The reporter noticed that the live delivery of goods has been widely criticized.
Speaking of the experience of buying prawns in the live broadcast room, Mr. Chen from Xuzhou, Jiangsu was very angry.
Some time ago, he entered the live broadcast room of a certain brand's official flagship store, and saw that the anchor was introducing a box of prawns with a length of 30 cm to 40 cm.
Seeing that the price was affordable, he placed an order.
After receiving the goods, Mr. Chen packed the shrimps on the scale and weighed them, only 2 catties and 6 taels.
If the packaging and the crushed ice inside are removed, it is estimated that there will be 2 taels less.
"It's so short of catties and two, it's obvious to deceive consumers." He sent the weighing chart to customer service, and the customer service responded that the moisture in the fresh food will be reduced during transportation, and loss is inevitable. The weight before delivery is 3 catties. , no compensation will be given.
"Aren't you fooling customers! Where is the minimum integrity in doing business?" Seeing that Mr. Chen was "unyielding", the customer service finally agreed to make up the difference.
"Although 4 taels is small, it has chilled the hearts of consumers." Mr. Chen told reporters.
Xiao Zhang from Beijing is an online shopping expert. He told the reporter that he suffered a lot from shopping in the live broadcast room. He said that he got 4 catties for 5 catties, and 3 catties for 4 catties. Such things are common. According to the report, sometimes the price difference can be made up, sometimes it is shirked by "5 catties is the gross weight", and sometimes it is ignored.
She said that you must be careful when purchasing products now, not only to listen to what the anchor says, but also to read the product introduction carefully, it is best to read the comment area carefully.
According to her guidance, the reporter entered a live broadcast room selling fruit, a 5-jin bag of sandy tomatoes, the anchor talked about it, and the latest comments in the comment area were "not enough weight! Only 4 catties!" "Lack of catties and two! Deceitful" and other comments.
In addition to the lack of weight, the reporter found that the fresh fruits in the live broadcast room are still "short of weight" in terms of size and specification-many fruits sold in the live broadcast room will be divided into three sizes: small fruit, medium fruit and large fruit. And mark the specific weight of each specification on the product details page. For example, starting from 50 grams for small fruits, 70 grams for medium fruits, and 110 grams for large fruits, the price will also increase accordingly.
However, many consumers who placed orders for large fruits in the live broadcast room found that after receiving the goods, there were many medium or small fruits mixed in the large fruits, and most of them were even small and medium fruits.
Chen Xiao (pseudonym) from Wuhan, Hubei, ordered a box of avocados in a live broadcast room a few days ago. The size he chose was "140g to 180g single fruit, 8 pieces in a box".
After receiving the goods, he felt that the avocados were significantly smaller than those shown in the live broadcast room. After weighing, he found that each avocado was only about 100 grams.
"This is a blatant deception." Chen Xiao said angrily.
"The fruit is very small, not as big as it was said in the live broadcast room" "I bought a big fruit, and sent out 'ping pong fruit'"... In the comment area of the live broadcast room, consumers vented their dissatisfaction with the merchant.
Regulations by law are still repeatedly banned
Less violations and lower costs for rights protection
The reporter sorted out and found that there are clear legal regulations on the use of "ghost scales" by merchants and the behavior of being short of weight and less. Merchants not only have to bear the corresponding civil liabilities, but may also be warned, confiscated illegal gains, fined, or even suspended for rectification and revoked business License and other administrative penalties.
Zhang Zhongkai, director of Beijing Gaojie Pengkai Law Firm, said that the shortage of goods is obviously a violation of the legal rights of consumers. It is suspected of violating relevant provisions of the Consumer Protection Law, Advertising Law, and Anti-Unfair Competition Law. There are two less questions, and it is also suspected of violating the "Code of Conduct for Webcast Marketing".
"Exaggerated publicity in marketing and lack of quality in delivery not only deviates from the spirit of the Civil Code on promoting the core values of socialism, that civil subjects engage in civil activities shall follow the principle of good faith, and prohibits fraud, but also violates the e-commerce law. Laws, regulations and policies such as the Law on the Protection of Consumer Rights and Interests, the Measures for the Administration of Online Live Marketing (Trial Implementation), have seriously infringed upon consumers' right to know, right to choose and right to fair trade, disrupting the normal market order." Duan, a professor at the School of Law, Minzu University of China Wei said.
The reporter noticed that many e-commerce platforms have launched a series of measures to deal with bad behaviors such as lack of money and two, such as restricting the withdrawal of funds from the account of the merchant's store (including affiliated stores), removing the store's products or blocking links. It will appear on the search home page; if the circumstances are serious, terminate the cooperation with the merchant, clear the store, and report to the market supervision department.
Law enforcement is also on the move.
For example, on March 6, a merchant in the seafood market in the eighth city of Xiamen, Fujian Province was given a yellow card warning by the law enforcement agency for being short of catties.
However, "super B too" recently went to the field to visit and found that in this seafood market, there are still some merchants who are short of weight and two things: a durian stall owner immediately got angry and said that he would not sell it after "super B too" took out the electronic scale, and another After one family paid, they found that 300 grams were missing, and the fair scale in the market was opposite the store.
The seafood sold in a seafood shop was found to be 250 grams missing on the fair scale next to it, and the shopkeeper immediately made up for it after being informed.
Why do some merchants still choose to "keep their positions in the dark" even if they are warned by a yellow card and even if the fair scale is nearby?
According to Zhu Xiaojuan, an associate professor at China University of Political Science and Law, this has something to do with consumers' "tolerance". Merchants compensate or give some coupons, and consumers usually settle down.
This makes some businesses feel confident.
Ren Chao, a professor at the School of Economics and Law of East China University of Political Science and Law, analyzed that the most obvious feature of the lack of weight is that the single amount is small, so it is difficult for consumers to find out.
Even if it is discovered, the merchant will use the error as an excuse to make up for it, and most consumers will not pursue this "small matter" to the end.
In particular, some hot pot restaurants and Malatang restaurants often select the ingredients and put them directly into the pot, and consumers lack time to respond.
However, mobile booths are less dependent on the need for long-term honest operation to form goodwill. Most of them are "one-off businesses", and some people hold the idea that if you get a job, you will make money.
"As far as supervision is concerned, on the one hand, based on the above-mentioned reasons, the routine of short-term use is secretive, the amount is small, and the liquidity is large, so it is difficult for the supervision department to find out and obtain evidence; Punishment is limited, compared with profit, the cost of breaking the law is low, and it is easy for businesses to make a comeback." Ren Chao said.
So, can punitive damages become a sharp sword to solve the problem?
The reporter’s investigation found that it is not easy to apply punitive damages. The reporter asked the merchant’s platform for help because the purchased goods were short of weight and hoped to get three times the compensation. Refuse to help.
Chen Yinjiang, deputy secretary-general of the Consumer Rights Protection Law Research Association of the China Law Society, told reporters that it is not necessary to apply to the market supervision department to obtain compensation. You can apply for 3 times the compensation only if there is fraud in the service.
"Fraud must have violated consumers' right to know, and infringement of consumers' right to know is not necessarily fraud, it may be caused by merchants' unintentional labeling or calculation errors. Carry out compensation, return and exchange processing, etc.” Chen Yinjiang said that according to the e-commerce law, the main responsibility of the platform is to review the qualifications of the merchants, supervise the quality and safety of the products sold by the merchants, etc., and the platform shall perform the obligation of assistance to customers who protect their rights. It should be assumed that the merchant will be held liable only if it is aware of the existence of infringement and still fails to take corresponding measures.
Key supervision combined with long-term rectification
Rule-of-law Governance Model Overcomes Persistent Illnesses
How to solve the phenomenon of "ghost scales" and reduce the occurrence of the problem of lack of weight?
Zhu Xiaojuan believes that the management of mobile vendors is a difficult point in market supervision. From the perspective of nature, if they operate normally, they are commercial entities and should be registered as market entities in accordance with the law. Accountability checks to prevent shortages; if it is a mobile stall, consumers can identify the relevant information of the vendors by paying, and if they find problems such as shortages, they can report to the market supervision department.
Ren Chao said that as far as consumers are concerned, they need to enhance their awareness of the protection of their rights and interests, and master the basic methods of identifying "ghost scales". Slaughtering and other high-incidence areas of lack of catties and taels, try to carry out re-weighing on the fair scale in the market before slaughtering, and save the evidence in time if the cats and cats are missing, and actively complain and report.
As far as consumer associations are concerned, they need to give full play to their functions, unblock channels for complaints, and safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of consumers.
"The majority of consumers should abandon the mentality of 'one more thing is worse than one less thing' and 'fear of trouble', and be brave and good at taking up legal weapons to protect their legitimate rights and interests. First of all, they need to properly preserve evidence, and then take timely actions in accordance with the law." Duan Wei He said that it is recommended to improve the legislation so that organizations such as consumer associations can play a greater role in purifying the market environment, maintaining transaction order, and protecting consumer rights.
"As a comprehensive law enforcement department, the market supervision and management department not only needs to accept consumer complaints in a timely manner, but also improves the 'complaint-handling' mechanism. It also needs to give full play to the initiative of administrative agencies, crack down on illegal activities, and curb the market's unhealthy Promote the combination of key supervision and long-term rectification. That is, special rectification activities need to be carried out regularly, focusing on mobile vendors and electronic pricing scales in the market. In other cases, it is necessary to continue to follow up the supervision to avoid the phenomenon that the law enforcement team leaves one second, and the "ghost scale" is "spring wind blows again" the next second." Ren Chao said.
Regarding the lack of goods sold in the live broadcast room, Rao Wei, senior partner of Beijing Tianchi Juntai Law Firm, said that the live broadcast platform bears the responsibility of the manager. If the platform can directly obtain economic benefits from the anchor’s behavior, it will bear the responsibility A higher duty of care should be responsible for the authenticity of the content, otherwise, a general duty of care should be assumed.
"At present, most platforms are profit-making platforms. They should strengthen the supervision system, check the quality of products, and set up corresponding punishment mechanisms. The liability for breach of contract of advertising publishers can be increased accordingly. Guarantee the quality of the product, and reduce the occurrence of shortages at the source.”
He also suggested to further standardize the behavior of anchors, enhance the legal awareness of anchors and MCN (third-party merchants or intermediaries that anchors cooperate with) institutions, and conduct regular legal publicity on anchors and MCN institutions; the platform should issue strict prohibitions and breach of contract regulations. Articles to standardize and restrict the behavior of anchors and MCN organizations, strengthen supervision and management, and give warnings and punishments for live broadcasts that violate laws and regulations; improve after-sales mechanisms such as complaints, establish a comprehensive service channel for consumer complaints, and handle related complaints in a timely manner , report, and give consumers good after-sales service.
In Duan Wei’s view, commercial activities such as online live broadcast marketing have played a positive role in flexible employment, stimulating consumption, and promoting the economy. Compensation rules effectively safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of consumers; in terms of law enforcement, various regulatory authorities at all levels have actively acted to form a joint force, and industry self-regulatory organizations have strengthened their normative functions to form an all-round and three-dimensional regulatory system; Professional level of rights and interests protection, timely promotion of the expansion of the consumer public interest litigation system; in terms of law compliance, businesses strengthen their awareness of law-abiding operations, and social participation improves the level of supervision, so that illegal activities have nowhere to hide.
The interviewed experts agreed that to get rid of the persistent disease that disrupts the market order, we cannot rely solely on consumers themselves or a single force of a certain department, but need to strengthen social co-governance and form "consumers actively exercise power, social groups In order to effectively break the routine and create a good atmosphere for honest management, the multiple-in-one integrity measurement operation mechanism such as "active supervision by administrative agencies" and other assistance can be effectively broken.
Comics/Li Xiaojun