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the origin of a type of mooncake promoted by several top anchors including brother yang has been questioned again.

a "meicheng mooncake" recently promoted by crazy xiao yangge and his anchor attracted attention from the outside world because the anchor emphasized the word "hong kong" when introducing the mooncake during the live broadcast, but whether this mooncake is a traditional hong kong brand was questioned. subsequently, the media confirmed from the manufacturer that the mooncake was produced in guangdong and is not currently sold in hong kong.

the paper found that the brand operator of meicheng mooncakes is guangzhou meicheng food co., ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "guangzhou meicheng food company"), and the manufacturer is guangzhou meicheng food technology co., ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "guangzhou meicheng technology company"), both of which are located in huadu district, guangzhou. the two companies claim that their parent company is hong kong meicheng food group co., ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "hong kong meicheng group company").

guangzhou meicheng food technology co., ltd., located in shiling town, huadu district, guangzhou, is the manufacturer of meicheng mooncakes. photo by chen xuhou, a reporter from the paper

it is worth noting that guangzhou meicheng technology co., ltd. was registered in 2014, and hong kong meicheng group co., ltd. was registered in 2019. hong kong meicheng group co., ltd. registered a number of mooncake-related trademarks containing the word "meicheng" and patterns in hong kong in 2023 and 2024. among them, the trademark with the word "hong kong meicheng mooncake" was registered on september 22, 2023, which is almost one year old.

facing the question of "meicheng mooncakes are not available in hong kong", the paper consulted the customer service of the official online store of meicheng mooncakes in the name of a consumer. the customer service replied that the brand is registered in hong kong and has a trademark registration certificate. it has established marketing centers and production bases in guangzhou and foshan. when asked where the mooncakes are from, the customer service replied that they are from guangdong.

on september 14, according to the business registration address, a reporter from the paper (www.thepaper.cn) visited guangzhou meicheng food co., ltd. and found that the address was vacant. at the entrance of guangzhou meicheng food technology co., ltd., a staff member of the company replied to the paper that they would record the concerns of the outside world about whether meicheng mooncakes are sold in hong kong, whether they are sold for more than 200 yuan offline, and whether its hong kong company is a shell company, and then give a unified reply. afterwards, the paper called a person in charge of the company, who said that he was too busy at the moment and could only communicate with the media later.

many netizens believe that the anchor's sales pitch misleads consumers into thinking that meicheng mooncakes are a traditional hong kong brand, or even produced in hong kong, which is misleading. in this regard, a lawyer believes that if the anchor's sales pitch misleads consumers, and the brand is registered in hong kong but has little connection with local hong kong products, it is suspected of violating the provisions of the advertising law, is highly misleading, and may constitute false advertising, or even consumer fraud.

the much-questioned "meicheng mooncake"

as the mid-autumn festival approaches, sales of "meicheng mooncakes" are booming with many top anchors selling goods through live broadcasts.

the official online store of meicheng mooncakes is called "meichengli food flagship store". according to public reports, according to data from the third-party data platform chanmama, in terms of sales, the sales of the meichengli brand on douyin in the past month were about 50 million to 75 million yuan, of which 10 million to 25 million yuan came from the brand's own sales. in terms of influencers bringing goods, the top three influencers who brought goods to meicheng mooncakes in the past 30 days were all three sheep anchor accounts, namely zui ge, zeng zhiwei, and three sheep network. among them, zui ge and zeng zhiwei brought goods of 5 million to 7.5 million yuan; three sheep brought goods of 1 million to 2.5 million yuan.

the meicheng mooncakes were questioned because of the promotion and recommendation by crazy brother xiao yang and his anchors during live broadcasts. according to multiple live broadcast clips, brother xiao yang used words such as "hong kong meicheng", "big brand", "high-end brand", and "hong kong meicheng, you buy it offline for more than 200 yuan" when recommending the mooncakes during live broadcasts. brother xiao yang also said that he had cooperated with the other party last year and recommended the mooncakes in the live broadcast room.

many netizens believe that the above-mentioned sales tactics used by brother yang and his anchors will make many consumers think that the mooncakes are a traditional hong kong brand, or even produced in hong kong.

the customer service of meicheng mooncake online store responded that the mooncakes are produced in guangdong.

as the news that "meicheng mooncakes are not available in hong kong" was revealed, xiao yangge's team and the meicheng mooncake manufacturer were questioned.

according to photos posted by netizens, some of the packaging of meicheng mooncakes are printed with words such as "hong kong" and "hong kong meicheng", and some are in traditional chinese. on the official online store of meicheng mooncakes, its product introduction page states that meicheng mooncakes are a brand of hong kong meicheng group.

the paper consulted the customer service of "meichengli food flagship store" in the name of a consumer, and they replied that the brand was registered in hong kong and had a trademark registration certificate, and had established marketing centers and production bases in guangzhou and foshan. when asked where the mooncakes were produced, the customer service replied "in guangdong."

in response to external doubts, the customer service of meicheng mooncake online store once responded to consumers that they would "remain neutral."

regarding the question of whether meicheng mooncakes can be bought in hong kong, the customer service did not respond directly, only replying: "meicheng brand business is based on the layout of the national market. we have national agents and distributors. meicheng mooncakes are also stationed in large offline supermarkets, so they are sold both online and offline channels."

according to multiple media reports, a reporter searched for "hong kong meicheng" and "meicheng mooncakes" on hktvmall, hong kong's largest online shopping platform, but did not get any corresponding results; another reporter contacted several agents of "hong kong meicheng mooncakes", who all said that "this company has no stores in hong kong" and that the production areas are basically guangzhou and foshan. another hong kong resident told the media that he did not see meicheng mooncakes for sale in hong kong. meicheng mooncakes online store customer service previously responded to the media that there are currently no offline stores in hong kong.

in the live broadcast room, meicheng mooncakes are available in different styles, such as 99 yuan for 3 boxes and 169 yuan for 3 boxes. brother yang once said that the mooncakes are a high-end brand and cost more than 200 yuan to buy offline. this has also aroused doubts from many netizens. the price of meicheng mooncakes on the official online store shows that there are mooncakes for sale at a unit price of dozens of yuan.

in addition, some netizens questioned that the name and outer packaging of meicheng mooncakes are easily reminiscent of hong kong's well-known mooncake brand - maxim's mooncakes.

made in guangdong, the trademark was registered in hong kong a year ago

according to the photos of the meicheng mooncake boxes posted by netizens, meicheng mooncakes are owned by hong kong meicheng group co., ltd., its brand operation center is guangzhou meicheng food co., ltd., and the manufacturers are guangzhou meicheng technology co., ltd. and foshan meicheng food co., ltd.

industrial and commercial registration information shows that guangzhou meicheng technology co., ltd. has a registered capital of 3 million yuan and was established on april 17, 2014. its address is located in shiling town, huadu district, guangzhou. its legal representative and largest shareholder is li shuiqing, and the second largest shareholder is zhang shaodeng.

guangzhou meicheng food company was established on april 24, 2019 with a registered capital of 10 million yuan. its address is located in huadu district, guangzhou. in july this year, its legal representative was changed from li shuiqing to zhang shaozhu. less than a month later, its legal representative was changed from zhang shaozhu to zhang shaodeng. currently, the company's largest shareholder is zhang shaozhu and the second largest shareholder is zhang shaodeng.

foshan meicheng food co., ltd. has a registered capital of 1 million yuan. it was established on february 17, 2023 and is located in nanhai district, foshan city. its largest shareholder is zhang shaodeng.

in the online recruitment information, the paper noticed that guangzhou meicheng technology co., ltd. claimed that the brand belonged to hong kong meicheng group co., ltd., but industrial and commercial data showed that there was no equity relationship between guangzhou meicheng food co., ltd., guangzhou meicheng technology co., ltd. and hong kong meicheng group co., ltd.

the trademark registration date for the words and patterns of "hong kong meicheng mooncakes" is september 22, 2023.

the paper found through an inquiry at the hong kong companies registry that hong kong meicheng group was established on april 15, 2019, later than guangzhou meicheng technology co., ltd., with a share capital of hk$10,000 at the time of its establishment. li shuiqing is also a founding member of the company, and its address is located in a residential area in shiling town, huadu district, guangzhou; and the company's secretary (corporate entity) was changed from haiming international corporate secretary services (hong kong) co., ltd. at the time of its establishment to the current shiqiao business (hong kong) co., ltd. after several changes.

the paper further inquired through the hong kong intellectual property department and found that hong kong meicheng group co., ltd. has registered more than ten word and pattern trademarks in hong kong, including "meicheng", "meicheng cake art", "hong kong meicheng mooncakes", and "meicheng life". the registered categories are concentrated in class 29, class 30, and class 35. among them, the "meicheng li" word and pattern trademark was registered earlier, on april 25, 2019, ten days after the company was established.

there are six trademarks registered in class 30 (including mooncakes). the trademark registration date of the words and patterns of "hong kong meicheng mooncakes" is september 22, 2023; the trademark registration dates of the words and patterns of "meicheng", "meisun meicheng", "meisun life meicheng life", "meisun fine cake hong kong meicheng cake art" and "meisun meicheng hong kong snow skin" are september 18, 2023, april 10, 2023, september 22, 2023, march 25, 2024 and april 29, 2024 respectively.

in other words, the registration date of the "hong kong meicheng mooncakes" words and pattern trademark is only a few days away from one year.

hong kong meicheng group co., ltd. has registered trademarks in hong kong.

it is worth mentioning that according to the regulations published by the hong kong intellectual property department, after the director of the trademark registry accepts the application for registration of the relevant trademark, he will record the detailed information of the trademark in the register and issue a registration certificate to the applicant. in addition, the director of the trademark registry will publish the relevant registration announcement in the hong kong intellectual property gazette. the registration date will be traced back to the date of submission of the application. in other words, the rights of the registered trademark owner will be calculated from the date of submission of the application. however, the actual registration date will be a few months later, up to six months later.

currently, many articles promoting meicheng mooncakes can be found on the internet. one of the articles states, "in 2019, mr. zhang shaozhu founded hong kong meicheng food group co., ltd. the meicheng brand has grown from nothing to three production bases after four years of development. it also owns many well-known festival gift food trademark brands such as 'meicheng bingyi', 'meicheng li', 'meicheng mooncake', and 'meisun'."

industrial and commercial registration information shows that the registered address of guangzhou meicheng food co., ltd. is located in a creative park in huadu district, guangzhou, and the address is currently vacant.

the business registration address shows that guangzhou meicheng food company is located in a creative park in huadu district, guangzhou. on september 14, the paper visited the site and found that the creative park was relatively remote, with many logistics companies nearby. the address registered by guangzhou meicheng food company was vacant, and the name of a media company was posted on its door and interior walls. the reporter called guangzhou meicheng food company's phone number many times, but no one answered the phone.

a staff member in charge of attracting investment in the creative park told the paper that guangzhou meicheng food company had rented more than 100 square meters here, but moved out not long after. about 20 minutes later, the staff member changed his words and said that the vacant office space with other company names still belonged to guangzhou meicheng food company, and because it was busy with the mooncake business recently, all the staff moved to shiling town in huadu district.

in shiling town, huadu district, the paper found guangzhou meicheng technology company. the words "hong kong meicheng food" were hung on the door of the company's building. faced with the reporter's visit, the security guard at the door was very vigilant and stopped the reporter from taking pictures, saying that no one could enter without an appointment. a staff member of guangzhou meicheng technology company said on the phone that they would not accept the interview. they have paid attention to the current public opinion and will consider a unified response later.

not long after, another staff member of guangzhou meicheng technology company came out to meet with reporters. in response to questions such as whether meicheng mooncakes are sold in hong kong, whether their offline sales price is more than 200 yuan, whether their hong kong company is a shell company, and whether the anchor's sales talk is suspected of false advertising, the staff member said that he had recorded these questions and might give a unified reply later.

afterwards, the paper contacted a person in charge of guangzhou meicheng technology company by phone, who said that he was too busy and could only communicate with the media later.

the paper noted that according to screenshots posted by netizens, the customer service of the official flagship store of meichengli food responded to consumers, saying that in response to the recent public opinion on the three sheep network, meicheng felt that as a partner brand of the three sheep network's live broadcast, its position was both sensitive and challenging. "we always maintain a neutral position, do not intervene or make any form of comments."

lawyer analysis: may mislead consumers or constitute false advertising

meicheng mooncakes is promoted and sold as a high-end hong kong mooncake brand, which has aroused widespread doubts from the outside world.

in this regard, zhao liangshan, senior partner of shaanxi hengda law firm, believes that mooncakes have a certain regionality. merchants and anchors promote mooncakes with the word "hong kong" and claim that they are hong kong brands, which can easily lead consumers to misunderstand that the mooncakes are a traditional hong kong mooncake brand, or even produced in hong kong. liao jianxun, senior partner of guangdong guoding law firm, also said that when selling mooncakes, they promote them as hong kong brand mooncakes, but fail to clearly inform consumers that it is only a registered trademark in hong kong and that the mooncakes are all produced in guangdong. this infringes on consumers' right to know and will make consumers misunderstand that the mooncakes are produced in hong kong, which is misleading publicity.

zhao liangshan said that if the anchor sells mooncakes under the banner of "hong kong", consumers will mistakenly believe that the mooncakes are produced in hong kong, and consumers will buy them for the word "hong kong", but in fact hong kong does not produce or sell this brand of mooncakes. this confusing behavior is suspected of consumer fraud. from another perspective, the anchor sells mooncakes, implying that the mooncakes are related to hong kong, and widely advertises and announces it to the public on the live broadcast platform. if it is inconsistent with the facts and misleads, it is suspected of false propaganda.

zhao liangshan said that article 4 of the advertising law stipulates that advertisements shall not contain false or misleading content, and shall not deceive or mislead consumers. article 20 of the consumer protection law stipulates that operators shall provide consumers with information on the quality, performance, use, validity period, etc. of goods or services, which shall be true and comprehensive, and shall not make false or misleading propaganda. in addition, article 20 of the anti-unfair competition law stipulates that if an operator makes false or misleading commercial propaganda for its products, or helps other operators to make false or misleading commercial propaganda by organizing false transactions, the market supervision administration may impose administrative penalties on it. accordingly, if the market supervision administration intervenes in the investigation and false propaganda is established, the seller and the anchor will face administrative penalties.

liao jianxun said that according to the advertising law, advertisers should be responsible for the authenticity of the advertising content. it can be seen that when promoting products, live broadcast rooms should truthfully and accurately introduce the origin and brand background of products to avoid misleading consumers. from the perspective of the advertising law, the above-mentioned live broadcast sales model may mislead consumers and is suspected of violating the advertising law.

liao jianxun further analyzed that, on the one hand, if the place of registration of the brand does not match the actual place of operation, it may mislead consumers. the anchor used "hong kong brand" as a selling point when live streaming, but in fact the company to which the brand operating company belongs is registered in hong kong and has little connection with local hong kong products. this is quite different from the expectations of consumers based on the brand name, and it is suspected of "selling dog meat under the guise of sheep".

on the other hand, the anchor emphasized "hong kong big brand" during the live broadcast. if it is not sold online or offline in hong kong, this is obviously inconsistent with the actual situation and contains advertising content that misleads consumers. in addition, if the actual product quality of the "hong kong meicheng" mooncakes is significantly different from the description, it may also constitute false advertising.

liao jianxun reminded that anchors’ sales of goods and advertising marketing should focus on the authenticity of products and the accuracy of brand promotion, and should regulate live broadcast sales behaviors to provide consumers with more real and reliable product information.

zhao liangshan also said that the platforms should fulfill their main responsibilities and conduct strict audits and checks, and consumers should be cautious and keep their eyes open when shopping online.

in response to the incident, people's daily online published a comment saying that it should be said that both the manufacturer and the seller were playing "careless" and playing with "information asymmetry" to "blind" consumers and make a fortune. from a legal perspective, both production and marketing must abide by laws and regulations, and whether such behavior of selling "exclusively for" the mainland in hong kong constitutes fraud cannot be easily concluded and should be determined by authoritative agencies. some netizens believe that "crazy little brother yang" marketing the hong kong meicheng brand has misled consumers and is suspected of fraud, and should bear legal responsibility. whether this judgment is true should be left to the law. what is certain is that both the consumer rights protection law and the food safety law have clearly defined the corresponding legal boundaries. when the anchor brings goods, once he breaks the bottom line and challenges the law, he will be difficult to escape the legal constraints.

the commentary wrote that various "internet celebrity" mooncakes have appeared one after another, giving consumers more choices, which is a good thing. however, in the face of the uneven quality of "internet celebrity" mooncakes, consumers should keep their eyes open, stay calm, and prevent being fooled. at the same time, they should consume rationally, enhance their awareness of rights protection, and promptly report to the market supervision department or relevant competent departments when encountering illegal acts, and safeguard their legitimate rights and interests in accordance with the law. it takes a multi-pronged approach to regulate the "double festival" online business activities. the platform must consolidate the main responsibility, ensure that the relevant information of the operators on the platform is true and valid, and strengthen the review and monitoring of the anchors and their business activities on the platform. internet anchors must abide by laws and regulations when bringing goods, and must not forget their principles for the sake of profit, let alone trample on the law in order to obtain abnormal interests.

the paper noted that in response to the doubts raised by meicheng mooncakes, luo yonghao said in a live broadcast that consumers who have bought meicheng mooncakes in the "make friends" live broadcast room will be refunded three times the amount. public reports show that in response to this matter, "make friends" responded to the media, saying, "it is reported that the brand is registered in hong kong and produced in guangzhou. whether it is suspected of violating publicity regulations has not yet been concluded. make friends also said that it is still verifying, and if the product's origin does not match the publicity and physical labeling, it will arrange corresponding compensation."