news

recently, a product called "meicheng mooncake" promoted by several top anchors including xiao yangge has been questioned. when promoting and selling this brand of mooncakes in the live broadcast room, it was called "hong kong brand", but in fact its trademark was registered in hong kong last year, and the place of production is in guangdong.

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 manufacturers are guangzhou meicheng food technology co., ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "guangzhou meicheng technology company") and foshan meicheng food co., ltd. among them, guangzhou meicheng food company and guangzhou meicheng technology company are both 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").

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.

the paper noted that the manufacturer of meicheng mooncakes has been punished many times due to problems such as excessive packaging.

in september 2022, the state administration for market regulation announced five typical cases of excessive packaging, one of which was related to meicheng mooncakes.

according to the case information published at that time, the market supervision department of nanjing, jiangsu province found that the nanjing zhongshan road branch of jiangsu beihualian supermarket co., ltd. sold three types of boxed mooncakes with different specifications and names. among them, the "meicheng anna jinzun mooncake (1.68kg/box)" with a sales price of 499 yuan was nominally manufactured by guangzhou meicheng food technology co., ltd. and produced on july 20. this product does not meet the requirements of the announcement that "operators selling boxed mooncakes shall not sell other products in any form; nor shall they sell mooncakes mixed with other products in the form of gift boxes, etc.". the nanjing xuanwu district market supervision bureau ordered immediate corrections in accordance with article 105 of the law on the prevention and control of environmental pollution by solid waste, and provided administrative guidance in accordance with the announcement, ordering it to correct sales behaviors that violated the announcement. upon review, the relevant mooncakes have been removed from the shelves.

tianyancha information shows that in october 2016, guangzhou meicheng technology co., ltd., one of the manufacturers of meicheng mooncakes, was fined 50,000 yuan by the guangzhou huadu district food and drug administration. its illegal behavior types are: article 124, paragraph 1 and paragraph 2 of the "food safety law" (revised at the 14th meeting of the standing committee of the 12th national people's congress on april 24, 2015).

the illegal acts referred to in the first and second paragraphs of article 124 of the food safety law are the production and sale of foods and food additives that contain pathogenic microorganisms, pesticide residues, veterinary drug residues, biological toxins, heavy metals and other pollutants and other substances that are harmful to human health in excess of the limit set by food safety standards; the production of foods and food additives using food raw materials and food additives that have exceeded their shelf life, or the sale of the above-mentioned foods and food additives.

in june 2024, guangzhou meicheng technology co., ltd. was fined 15,000 yuan by the guangzhou huadu district emergency management bureau for failing to deploy safety production management personnel in accordance with regulations.

in february 2024, another manufacturer of meicheng mooncakes, foshan meicheng food co., ltd., was fined 55,000 yuan by the danzao town government of nanhai district, foshan city for producing prohibited foods. it is worth noting that foshan meicheng food co., ltd. was only established in february 2023.

the paper previously reported that a product called "meicheng mooncake" that crazy little yangge and his anchor recently promoted attracted attention from the outside world because the anchor emphasized the word "hong kong" when introducing the mooncake during the live broadcast, but whether the 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.

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.

in response to the question that "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, the paper reporter 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 paper noted that the douyin account of meicheng mooncakes has stopped live streaming to promote its products. only one video is visible on the account, and the other videos are suspected to be hidden or deleted. on the evening of september 14, crazy brother yang did not start live streaming at 7pm on saturday as usual. currently, the display window of brother yang's douyin account has removed the related products of meicheng mooncakes.

chen jun, a partner of anhui tianhe law firm, has been deeply involved in the field of intellectual property for many years and is the director of the intellectual property committee of the anhui lawyers association. in an interview with the paper, he believed that the establishment of a brand is based on product sales and promotion activities. if there is no substantial business operation in hong kong, but only a registered trademark is held, then the relevant products can only be identified as products with hong kong registered trademarks, rather than "hong kong brands."

chen jun said that given that mainland consumers have a certain tendency to consume brands from hong kong or international brands, some businesses will take advantage of this mentality and entrust third-party professional institutions to register companies and trademarks in hong kong at a lower cost. later, when selling products in the mainland market, some businesses will use "hong kong brands" as a marketing tool to increase the company's profitability.

according to nan fang +, on the evening of september 15, the huadu district market supervision bureau responded that after noticing the situation on september 13, the bureau immediately conducted an investigation on the company involved, guangzhou meicheng food co., ltd. in response to the public's concerns about "whether it is registered in hong kong" and "whether it is a hong kong brand", the company provided the business registration information of hong kong meicheng food group co., ltd. registered in hong kong, and issued relevant certificates of hong kong meicheng food group co., ltd.'s registration of the "meisun", "meicheng" and "hong kong meicheng mooncake" trademarks in hong kong. at the same time, it also provided documents such as trademark authorization between the company and hong kong meicheng food group co., ltd.

regarding the issue of whether it involves "false advertising", because it involves a wide range of areas, the companies involved and the sales company (hefei three sheep network technology co., ltd.) are from different regions, and cross-regional verification requires coordination with multiple local regulatory departments. the huadu district market supervision bureau will speed up the verification progress, handle it in accordance with the law, and respond to the concerns of the public and the media in a timely manner.

source: the paper