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□ our reporter zhao li

□ lin mingzhen, an intern at this newspaper

as the mid-autumn festival approaches, people's demand for mooncakes is increasing. in addition to consumers queuing up in front of stores to buy mooncakes for themselves, companies are also issuing mooncake coupons to employees, and many people give mooncake coupons as gifts to relatives and friends.

on the eve of the mid-autumn festival, the exchange of mooncake vouchers of major brands on the market ushered in a peak period. "accept mooncake vouchers of yuan× with integrity, send and confirm in seconds, please send a private message to issue the voucher", "2024 mooncake vouchers are recycled at a high price", "is there anyone who still wants mooncake vouchers in ×× building now?" the investigation of the legal daily reporter found that social platforms and e-commerce platforms were full of posts about recycling mooncake vouchers, involving well-known brands such as yuan×, xing××, and mei×, and the purchase price ranged from 40% to 70% of the face value of the voucher.

on a second-hand trading platform, a ticketing account from suzhou, jiangsu, was both "collecting tickets" and "issuing tickets". on the ticket collection details page, the ticketing company said it was "repurchasing mooncake tickets at a high price". the reporter randomly selected a mooncake voucher worth 318 yuan from a certain brand for consultation, and the ticketing company said that the recycling price of the 318 yuan mooncake voucher was 150 yuan.

the reporter clicked on the details of the "ticket issuance" page, which showed that "wholesale mooncake coupons are valid nationwide. if you have company resources to cooperate with, we can help you with quotation, shipment and invoicing, so you can make money during the mid-autumn festival without doing anything." the reporter used another account claiming to be a company purchaser and inquired about the "ticket issuance" price of the same mooncake coupon from the ticketing company. the ticketing company told the reporter that the mooncake coupon was priced at 248 yuan.

"the mooncake coupons are discounted, and the invoice can be issued to you at the original price. both paper invoices and electronic invoices are acceptable. the invoices we issue are directly from the mooncake company, not the distributor's invoice." the ticketing agent told reporters that if a batch order is placed, the invoice they issue will be from a famous local mooncake brand in suzhou, "and i guarantee that what you receive is a mooncake invoice."

in addition to the mooncake brand the reporter consulted, the ticket agency also promoted a "more cost-effective plan" to the reporter - "it's better for you to buy xxx, we sell it cheaper." the brand's tickets can be discounted by 40%, and the amount of invoices can be discounted by 20% to 90% of the original price. they even said, "when you buy these mooncakes, it depends on how much the invoice can reimburse you. if you buy mooncakes from xxx, the invoice i will issue you can reimburse more."

when the reporter asked why different brands of tickets had different discounts, the ticket agency told the reporter, "the more expensive ones are bought back from the market, and the cheaper ones are purchased in bulk from ticket dealers. since we have more, they are naturally cheaper."

the reporter found that there are still many individual accounts selling their own "loose tickets" on social platforms, and even "building" a "mooncake ticket mutual aid building". under such "ticket issuing" posts, there are often many "ticket collectors" offering prices. in the comment area of ​​these posts, there are many accounts with nicknames such as "wholesale various mooncake tickets" and "ticket collectors" appearing to buy mooncake tickets from "ticket issuers".

during the interview, the reporter learned that there is another situation regarding mooncake coupons: there are more mooncake coupons than the corresponding physical mooncakes, that is, "more coupons than mooncakes" and "over-issued mooncake coupons". this is an unspoken rule in the mooncake market.

an industry insider told the reporter: "the phenomenon of mooncake coupons idling is a bit similar to futures. basically, it is manufacturer-buyer-manufacturer, or manufacturer-buying unit-buying unit employee-manufacturer. this phenomenon has existed for many years."

during the investigation, the reporter noticed that there was a widely circulated analysis of "the economics behind mooncake vouchers" on social platforms, which stated that mooncake manufacturers sold mooncake vouchers to distributors at a relatively low price, and the distributors raised the price and sold them in bulk to companies and other customers who needed to give favors. these mooncake vouchers may flow into the hands of ticket scalpers through giving them away or reselling them. after the scalpers purchased the mooncake vouchers from distributors and individual customers at a low price, they may sell them to mooncake manufacturers at a slightly higher price, or resell them to other consumers.

"without producing mooncakes, mooncake manufacturers, distributors and scalpers can all make money. this phenomenon is jokingly called the 'securitization' of mooncakes." in this regard, liu juan (pseudonym), a shanghai native who has worked in related businesses, explained to reporters the business model of mooncake coupons - suppose a mooncake manufacturer prints a 100-yuan mooncake coupon and sells it to a distributor for 65 yuan, who then sells it to consumer a for 80 yuan, who gives it to consumer b, who sells it to a scalper for 40 yuan, who then sells the coupon to the mooncake manufacturer for 50 yuan. in this closed loop, even if no physical mooncakes are produced, the mooncake manufacturer earns 15 yuan, the distributor earns 15 yuan, and the scalper earns 10 yuan.

according to liu juan, there are two main types of mooncake voucher scalpers: one is the "big scalper", who has the ability to hoard mooncake vouchers worth millions or tens of millions of yuan, and is equivalent to a distributor. they start negotiating with merchants in may and june every year about the number of reservations for the year, and at the same time strive for a partial refund; the other is the "small scalper", who buys mooncake vouchers from retail investors, does not hoard them, and resells them according to market conditions.

liu juan admitted that the “securitization” of mooncakes brings with it the risk of price fluctuations in the mooncake coupon market. manufacturers are unable to accurately estimate the supply and demand quantities of the year, and may print more or fewer mooncake coupons.

the reporter noticed that some netizens said that they received a mid-autumn festival gift box from a store called "linglong xinyi". however, they could not pick up the gift at the store in their area of ​​residence, so they had to go to other areas, and it was unknown whether they could receive it on the same day. they had no choice but to resell the mooncake coupons.

chang sha, a lawyer at kyoto law firm, told reporters that mooncake vouchers can replace physical mooncakes in the form of gift cards, which can indeed reduce food waste to a certain extent, save transportation costs, and achieve profits for manufacturers, distributors and other parties in an ideal state, which seems to achieve effective allocation of resources. however, from a practical perspective, the "securitization" trend of mooncake vouchers is becoming increasingly obvious, and consumers' rights and interests may be harmed.

in chang sha's opinion, the sales rules of mooncake coupons are all set by merchants. in order to circumvent their own obligations, merchants have stipulated various exemption clauses, while imposing many obligations on consumers. for example, if consumers encounter difficulties in picking up mooncakes with mooncake coupons, merchants are not responsible; picking up mooncakes with mooncake coupons cannot guarantee the quality, such as merchants providing consumers with near-expiry mooncakes, and consumers are often helpless; mooncake coupons have a time limit, and if consumers do not use them in time, they will expire and become invalid; some mooncake coupons also set restrictions such as appointment pick-up and fixed-point pick-up, causing inconvenience to consumers; if consumers encounter a shortage of designated products, they can only pay the difference to exchange for other products, etc.

"consumers who purchase mooncake coupons are in a weak position in the bargaining game with merchants, and their legitimate rights and interests are difficult to be well protected," said chang sha.

at the same time, industry insiders revealed that some businesses focus on the "gift market" and provide "one-stop" services for the issuance, sale and recycling of "paper mooncakes". due to the characteristics of confidentiality of transactions, easy receipt and quick cashing, it may provide conditions for the breeding of corruption.

chen yinjiang, deputy secretary-general of the consumer protection law research institute of the chinese law society, suggested that the whole society needs to work together from multiple dimensions to manage the chaos of gray transactions of mooncake vouchers and protect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers. regulatory authorities need to strengthen market supervision. whether it is scalpers speculating or merchants deliberately setting up promotional routines for consumers, those who cross the legal red line should be punished according to law to effectively protect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers. a self-regulatory organization should be established at the industry level to guide enterprises to operate with integrity. in addition, consumers should also keep their eyes open and try to purchase through formal channels and on demand under the premise of rational consumption to avoid waste, so that mooncakes can return to the value of the product itself and avoid damage to their legitimate rights and interests.