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on september 17, the hefei high-tech zone market supervision and administration bureau issued a situation report: recently, the "hong kong meicheng mooncakes" sold by three sheep network technology co., ltd. through live streaming has attracted attention. three sheep network technology co., ltd. has been investigated for suspected "misleading consumers" and other behaviors in live streaming, and will be dealt with in accordance with laws and regulations based on the results of the investigation. our bureau has repeatedly interviewed and urged companies to standardize their business practices in conjunction with relevant departments, and will resolutely investigate and deal with illegal and irregular behaviors in live streaming by companies in accordance with the law.

previous report: "hong kong high-end mooncakes" with monthly sales of over 50 million yuan are not available in hong kong? multiple responses

source: guangzhou daily

the "hong kong high-end mooncakes" sold in the live broadcast room are not available in hong kong at all!

on the eve of the mid-autumn festival, the "hong kong meicheng mooncakes" promoted by brother yang and the anchors under three sheep attracted attention due to false advertising.

according to multiple live broadcast clips, when xiao yangge and his anchors recommended the mooncakes during the live broadcast, they used words such as "hong kong meicheng", "big brand", "high-end brand", "hong kong meicheng, you can buy it offline for more than 200 yuan", etc. however, netizens searched for "hong kong meicheng", "meicheng mooncakes", "meicheng cake art" and other words on hktvmall, the largest online shopping platform in hong kong, and did not find any related products. many agents of the mooncake brand said that the company "has no stores in hong kong" and the production areas are basically guangzhou and foshan. as public opinion fermented, many details such as the origin and quality of meicheng mooncakes were questioned one after another.

according to third-party data platforms, 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. the top three influencers who brought meicheng mooncakes in the past 30 days were all from the three sheep anchor accounts, namely zui ge, zeng zhiwei, and three sheep network. zui ge and zeng zhiwei brought 5 million to 7.5 million yuan of sales; three sheep brought 1 million to 2.5 million yuan of sales.

huadu district market supervision bureau responded to the guangzhou daily new flower city reporter 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, and also provided documents such as the trademark use 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.

meicheng mooncakes removed from the live broadcast room of "three sheep"

on the evening of september 14, the live broadcast room of "three sheep" stopped selling meicheng mooncakes and closed comments. at the same time, the douyin live broadcast room of "crazy little yangdi" removed the display of meicheng mooncakes and the same mooncakes were also removed from the product window.

affected by this incident, feigua data showed that on the 14th alone, the douyin account "crazy little brother yang" lost about 121,000 followers, and the "family members" felt that they had been deceived.

regarding the meicheng mooncake incident in the "three sheep" live broadcast room, the reporter called the official customer service of douyin e-commerce. the customer service said: we are verifying the matter. if there is indeed false propaganda in the relevant live broadcast room, it will be handled in accordance with relevant regulations, generally by suspending business for rectification, clearing out, removing products from the shelves, and closing the store.

xiao yangge has been selling meicheng mooncakes live for three consecutive years

netizens said that they sell "three boxes for 59 yuan" on other platforms

looking through the hundreds of talent shows under the meicheng mooncakes, most of them are strip advertisements posted by accounts under the "three sheep". the founders of the three sheep group, zhang qingyang (crazy little brother yang) and zhang kaiyang (crazy big brother yang), are both promoting meicheng mooncakes.

the reporter noticed that a video released by "three sheep" in 2023 showed: "last year, a live broadcast sold 100,000 orders." according to this statement, "three sheep" has been selling hong kong meicheng mooncakes for at least three consecutive years.

moreover, xiao yangge claimed in the live broadcast room this year that this mooncake is a high-end hong kong brand, with black truffles inside, and was prepared by a michelin master. in the 2023 cut-strip advertisement, zhang qingyang and zhang kaiyang did not introduce it as a hong kong brand.

in addition, some netizens posted screenshots showing that the same mooncakes as meicheng mooncakes are priced at 59 yuan for three boxes on some platforms, while the price in the "three sheep" live broadcast room is 169 yuan for three boxes.

what is the origin of meicheng mooncakes?

the official sales store of meicheng mooncakes is douyin's "meichengli official flagship store". the reporter consulted the store's customer service in the name of a consumer, and the customer service said: "the meicheng brand is registered in hong kong and has a trademark registration certificate. the brand genes and r&d team are all from hong kong. in order to better expand market demand, meicheng has established marketing centers and production bases in guangzhou and foshan to strengthen supply chain management and enhance brand competitiveness. we promise that each product meets national food safety standards." at the same time, the customer service also provided a screenshot of the hong kong registered trademark certificate, but the trademark name in the screenshot is"beautiful sincerity"。

when asked, "is it sold in hong kong?", the customer service representative only said, "the meicheng brand business is based on the national market. we have national agents and distributors, and meicheng mooncakes are also sold in large offline supermarkets, so they are sold both online and offline." but when asked, "where can i buy it in guangzhou?", the customer service representative did not give a positive reply, only saying that the store promised that all products are official authentic products and that each product meets national food safety standards."please do not believe in the false reports."the customer service also said that they are only responsible for online sales.

the reporter saw that the store still had a variety of meicheng mooncakes on sale. one of them, the "meicheng gift black truffle lava custard mooncake gift box" with a promotional price of 169 yuan, showed "274,000 sold". in front of "meicheng mooncake" on the product page, the word "hong kong" was marked in small font, and meicheng cake art was called "a brand under the hong kong meicheng group."

the owner of the "meichengli" trademark is "hong kong meicheng food group co., ltd."the reporter checked with the hong kong intellectual property office and found that "hong kong meicheng food group co., ltd." has 16 registered trademarks.including "meichengli", "meicheng", "meicheng bingyi", "hong kong meicheng mooncakes", "meicheng life", etc. among them, the actual trademark registration date of "meichengli" provided by the customer service is september 10, 2019, and the corresponding goods include tea; sugar; chocolate; pastries, etc., but no mooncakes. the trademark registration submission date of "hong kong meicheng mooncakes" is september 22, 2023, and the actual registration date is february 21, 2024, and the corresponding goods include mooncakes; biscuits; pastries, etc.

the merchant qualifications provided by "meichengli official flagship store" show that the operator of the online store is "guangzhou meicheng food co., ltd." tianyancha information shows that the company's registered address is no. 241 shangye avenue, huadu district, guangzhou. when the company was established on april 24, 2019, the legal representative was li shuiqing. until july this year, li shuiqing no longer served as the company's legal representative. the current legal representative of the company is zhang shaodeng. the company's business scope includes food internet sales (only pre-packaged food sales); food import and export; food sales (only pre-packaged food sales), etc.

according to information posted by netizens on the packaging of meicheng mooncakes, the mooncake manufacturers are guangzhou meicheng food technology co., ltd. and foshan meicheng food co., ltd. the outer packaging also printed "hong kong meicheng food group co., ltd." and "brand (china) operation center: guangzhou meicheng food co., ltd.", but did not mark the relationship between "hong kong meicheng food group co., ltd." and guangzhou meicheng food co., ltd., guangzhou meicheng food technology co., ltd. and other mooncake manufacturers.

according to the paper, the reporter found through 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 was also a founding member of the company, and its address is located in a residential area in shiling town, huadu district, guangzhou.

lawyer:if advertising causes misunderstanding to consumers

may constitute fraud

wen xiaofeng, a lawyer at guangdong bingjia law firm, believes that judging from existing reports, whether meicheng mooncakes and xiao yangge are suspected of false advertising depends mainly on whether xiao yangge emphasized that the mooncakes are hong kong mooncakes during the live broadcast, and whether the customers who placed orders to buy the mooncakes in the live broadcast room based on xiao yangge's introduction that they are hong kong mooncakes. "after all, many people think that hong kong mooncakes are more advanced. if xiao yangge emphasizes that the mooncakes are hong kong mooncakes, it will give consumers a misunderstanding that the mooncakes are produced in hong kong and the quality is produced according to hong kong standards. this is suspected of false advertising and misleading consumers. consumers can claim that the operator has committed fraud in accordance with the consumer protection law and other relevant laws and regulations, and then require the operator to bear the punitive compensation liability of 'refund one and compensate three'."

wen xiaofeng pointed out that in the process of brand operation, the method of "registering trademarks overseas, producing and selling domestically" is relatively common. whether it involves false propaganda depends mainly on whether the advertising of the place of origin during the sales process of the goods is consistent with the product's origin mark. in other words, whether it will cause consumers to misunderstand when choosing the product. if it is not consistent, it may constitute fraud.

live streamers should abide by the law

according to @people's daily: some netizens believe that "crazy little yang"'s marketing of the hong kong meicheng brand is misleading to consumers and suspected of fraud, and he should bear legal responsibility. whether this judgment is true should be determined by 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 promotes goods, once he crosses the bottom line and challenges the law, he will not be able to escape the legal constraints.

various "internet celebrity" mooncakes have appeared one after another, giving consumers more choices, which is a good thing. however, facing the "internet celebrity" mooncakes of varying quality, consumers should keep their eyes open, stay calm, and avoid 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 authorities when encountering illegal acts, and safeguard their legitimate rights and interests in accordance with the law.

to regulate online business activities during the "double festivals", a multi-pronged approach is needed. platforms must fulfill their principal responsibilities, ensure that the relevant information of operators on the platform is true and valid, and strengthen the review and monitoring of anchors and their business activities on the platform. online anchors must abide by laws and regulations when selling goods, and must not forget their principles for the sake of profit, let alone trample on the law in order to gain abnormal profits.