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✪ lai chengyu

renmin university of china

[introduction] recently, the hong kong meicheng mooncakes sold in the live broadcast room of "crazy little yangge", the live broadcast host with the largest number of fans on douyin, have caused huge controversy due to suspected false propaganda of the origin. according to multiple sources, meicheng mooncakes have also been produced for "dongfang selection" and this year they are also on sale in luo yonghao's "make friends" live broadcast room. in recent years, live broadcasting has been booming, not only bringing popularity to the anchor group, but also creating a brand out of thin air in the live broadcast room. even celebrities have to rely on anchors to gain popularity. however, the celebrity effect of anchors has not brought guarantees to product quality and reputation, but has instead caused the negative impact of many counterfeit and shoddy products to expand. how to understand the repeated occurrence of negative events in celebrity live broadcast rooms today, and the repeated violations of laws and regulations?

this article points out that the celebrity live streaming sales model is different from the celebrity endorsement of the traditional marketing model. its product sales do not rely on the brand of the product or the word-of-mouth of past operations to influence consumers, but are based on the popularity of the celebrity in other fields and the trust of fans in them. this model exhibits three characteristics: first, the transfer of celebrities from other fields to the live streaming sales industry is similar to "outsiders" doing "inside business". although it requires less investment and has quick results in the short term, in the long run, the lack of corresponding professional ability of celebrities makes them lose the corresponding certification and recommendation significance; secondly, the personal influence of celebrities has become the main reason for facilitating transactions, and the goods have become the "supporting role" in the transaction link. the logic of product reputation is gradually replaced by the logic of celebrity personality; finally, the current regulations have little disciplinary effect on the field of online live shopping, and the blind trust and worship of celebrity operators by fans and consumers also leads to a high tolerance and inclusiveness for their illegal or irregular business operations.

under the celebrity live streaming sales model, which rights of consumers are easily infringed? the author points out the following five aspects: first, the right to know. the relevant information of the goods is not the main focus of consumers. instead, it is the recommendation strength of celebrity operators. the nature of business entities seeking profits and avoiding harm can easily lead to celebrity operators abusing the dominant position of commodity information in the transaction process; second, the right to choose independently. under the celebrity live streaming model, consumers' needs are no longer focused on the functions of the goods themselves, but on spiritual needs beyond material things. in this case, the goods accepted by consumers are likely to deviate from their actual needs; third, the right to fair trade. celebrities use their personal influence to attract consumers. consumers can only passively accept the price given by celebrity operators and do not enjoy the bargaining power in the transaction in a substantive sense. this violates equality and fairness in commodity transactions and affects consumers' rational choices; fourth, personal information and privacy rights. consumers often have high expectations for celebrity operators to protect their personal information based on their trust in celebrity operators. in the absence of a strong legal protection system, consumers find it difficult to resist celebrity operators' arbitrary processing of their personal information and infringement of their privacy rights; fifth, the right to claim damages. there is a lack of exclusivity between celebrity personality influence and goods. it is difficult for consumers to locate the responsible party when exercising their right to claim damages, which makes it difficult for consumers to realize their right to claim damages.

this article was originally published in the journal of china university of political science and law, issue 5, 2021, with the original title "legal theory and consumer protection of celebrity live streaming sales"，it only represents the author's views and is for readers' reference.

legal theory and consumer protection of celebrity live streaming

▍introduction

celebrity live streaming sales refers to the act of a natural person with a certain degree of online influence selling or recommending products to fans through e-commerce platforms and live streaming media. the e-commerce model of celebrity live streaming sales has maintained a strong development momentum since its rise in 2016. data shows that as of the second half of 2020, the total sales of goods brought by the top 100 anchors in china were close to 113 billion yuan, accounting for 83% of the annual sales of my country's live streaming e-commerce platforms. some platforms predict that by 2021, the entire e-commerce live streaming will achieve sales of 2.5 trillion yuan, and the total sales of goods brought by the top 100 anchors in china will account for more than 90%.while the celebrity-led sales model has driven huge sales and created huge economic benefits, the chaos behind the industry cannot be ignored. data shows that 37.3% of consumers surveyed said they had encountered consumption problems during live shopping.these consumer problems mainly include: "false propaganda", "difficulty in returning and exchanging goods", "selling banned products", "using 'special auction links' to mislead consumers", "abuse of extreme words", etc. in addition, according to statistics released by the state administration for market regulation, in the first three quarters of 2020, the national 12315 platform received a total of 21,900 complaints and reports related to live broadcasting, a year-on-year increase of 479.60%, and "live broadcasting with goods" accounted for nearly 60%. during the "6.18" promotion alone, as many as 112,384 pieces of negative information about "live broadcasting with goods" were collected. it can be seen that problems in the live broadcasting with goods industry are endless.

although relevant departments in my country have issued relevant policies and measures to address the chaos in celebrity live streaming sales, they have become a formality due to insufficient mandatory regulations. most of the relevant theoretical research is concentrated in the field of advertising and marketing, and very few are in the field of law. judging from these few research results, the relevant research only explores the supervision of celebrity live streaming sales from a macro perspective, and rarely explores the root causes of celebrity live streaming sales problems from a micro perspective, resulting in a lack of practicality and failure to thoroughly solve specific problems in practice.

therefore, this article attempts to clarify the essence of the celebrity live streaming marketing model from a legal perspective and deeply analyze the problems. through the construction of relevant systems, that is, regulating the responsibilities of celebrity operators, adjusting blind consumer protection standards, and strengthening the supervision of relevant departments and live streaming platforms, we will work together to build and promote the healthy development of new formats. this article intends to conduct research on this in order to contribute to the improvement of relevant legal systems in my country.

▍the essence and performance of the celebrity live streaming marketing model

the most notable feature of celebrity live streaming is that celebrities use their personal influence to influence the consumption choices of information recipients. the so-called personal influence actually refers to the intangible personality rights of celebrities, such as the right to name, the right to portrait, and the right to reputation. these intangible personality rights have a certain degree of social popularity and are well known to the relevant public. celebrities apply their personal influence to the commodity market, which has become an effective means to quickly increase the popularity and reputation of commodities. in fact, the practice of commercialization of personality rights began in the late 19th century and early 20th century, when the names and portraits of some celebrities were widely used in commodities such as perfumes, cigars, and medicines. the increasing popularity of mass media has profoundly affected people's daily lives, changed people's lifestyles and the marketing methods of products. today, the celebrity influence effect still plays a huge role in the live streaming marketing model, bringing huge economic benefits to the live streaming industry.

from the traditional commodity marketing model in the past to the current celebrity live streaming sales model, the development ideas are consistent: all use the personal influence of celebrities to endorse commodities in order to influence consumer choices. the difference is that in the traditional business model, celebrity endorsements only play the role of information transmission, and in essence, they promote the conversion of consumption through the goodwill and reputation accumulated by the commodity in the past. for example, for "china's time-honored brands" commodities, merchants attract consumers with the good reputation accumulated by the long-term operation of the commodities, and celebrity endorsements only play a supporting role.the celebrity live streaming sales model does not rely on the brand of the product or the reputation of past business to influence consumers, but relies on the popularity of the celebrity in other fields and the trust of fans in them. this is the essential difference between celebrity live streaming sales and traditional marketing models.the business model of applying personal reputation accumulated in other fields to the process of commodity sales has the following three characteristics:

1. lack of correlation between celebrity personality traits and products

the general rule followed in the process of commercializing celebrity personality rights is that there is a close connection between commodities and personality elements. in the celebrity live streaming sales model, celebrities transfer the popularity or reputation accumulated in other fields to the sales process of commodities, and there is no correlation between celebrity personality identifiers and commodities. the reason is that there is no consistent field between celebrity personality identifiers and commodities. in traditional commercial activities, a successful commercial advertisement requires a certain logical connection between the celebrity involved and the commodity being promoted. there are many ways to make a logical connection, the most typical of which is that the celebrity's professional field must have a certain correlation with the commodity. for example, the "li ning" sports brand combines athletes with strong recognition and popularity in the sports world with sports goods, and their common field is the professional field of sports. celebrity personality identifiers and commodities belong to the same field, which not only reflects the professionalism of celebrity testimonies, but also plays a good role in promoting commodities. in the celebrity live streaming sales model, celebrities are either people with high popularity in film, television, and variety shows, or internet celebrity anchors directly incubated by mcn organizations. there is no direct connection between these celebrity personality identifiers and commodities.celebrities switching from other fields to the live streaming industry is similar to outsiders doing insider business. in the short term, using the influence of celebrities to drive sales can indeed promote economic development. however, in the long run, if there is a lack of corresponding professional capabilities, the celebrity logo will lose its significance of authentication and recommendation, which will eventually lead to a lack of consumer recognition and affect the healthy operation of the market economy.the second reason is that there is no exclusivity between celebrity personality identifiers and commodities. the establishment of the exclusive functions of celebrity personality identifiers and commodities is of certain significance for celebrity personality identifiers to determine the source of commodities or services, or to distinguish different commodity entities. in terms of the commercial use of portrait rights, operators usually establish a "one-to-one" strong exclusive relationship between the celebrity's personal image and the commodity. for example, the "laoganma" brand chili sauce and the "kfc" catering brand display the founder's personal image on the commodity. in addition, operators usually consolidate the stability of publicity results by registering trademarks to ensure that a strong exclusivity is established between the celebrity's portrait and the commodity.under the celebrity live streaming sales model, the celebrity operator's portrait rights do not have the strong "one-to-one" exclusivity between celebrities and products in the traditional marketing model. the relationship between celebrities and products is often "one-to-many", which not only brings certain obstacles to consumers in identifying the source of goods and services or commercial entities, but also weakens the guarantee function of the celebrity personality identification.

2. the influence of celebrity personality plays a leading role in commodity transactions

in the traditional industrial era, product reputation was the mainstream economic research paradigm. the logic of product reputation is rooted in neoclassical economics. it is a logic that satisfies customer needs and creates customer value by providing customers with target resources such as goods and technology. since good word-of-mouth communication can improve people's perception of the brand, promote the diffusion of new products, and increase product sales, it can improve the company's profits and market competitiveness. therefore, during this period, operators mainly improved the quality of goods through design, research and development, manufacturing, and delivery to obtain good brand reputation.in the context of celebrity live streaming selling goods, the dominant logic of product reputation has gradually been replaced by the dominant logic of celebrity personality. this is manifested in the following ways: on the one hand, the reputation of the product itself is no longer the focus of market players.from the perspective of the operator, since celebrities often have high popularity and traffic value in real life and on the internet, using this advantage to attract fans and viewers to watch online live broadcasts is more conducive to forming a stable audience group, which can achieve product brand promotion and sales goals to a greater extent. operators can obtain ideal live broadcast marketing effects by starting with the celebrity-led live broadcast model.compared with improving the exchange value of goods by improving the goods themselves, celebrity live streaming marketing has the characteristics of low investment and quick results, so it is favored by operators. from the perspective of consumers, their willingness to buy depends to a large extent on the popularity of the celebrity who brings the goods.according to the public data of the china consumers association in 2020: among the reasons why consumers choose live shopping, "the anchor's explanation highlights the value of the goods" accounts for 35.1%, "the anchor i have always followed" accounts for 27.7%, "the anchor interacts with me" accounts for 14.4%, and "the anchor is my favorite star" accounts for 12.9. the celebrity live streaming model provides consumers with a way to interact with celebrities online, which can quickly increase consumers' recognition of celebrities, thereby affecting consumers' choice of goods and services. based on this, the influence of celebrity personality has become the focus of attention of market players.

on the other hand, the information transmission function of celebrities has shifted to a dominant function. from the perspective of transaction subjects, in the past marketing model, the transaction subjects were consumers and commodity operators, and celebrities only provided more transaction opportunities for commodities through advertising. in essence, celebrities were bridges to build transactions. in the celebrity-led sales model, the transaction subjects are fan consumers and celebrity operators. celebrity operators have the right to dispose of commodities and have great control over the facilitation of transactions. if both parties agree on the transaction, the sales contract is established, and celebrity operators occupy a dominant position in the transaction. from the perspective of the functions played by celebrities, celebrities in advertisements in the past mainly played a secondary role in conveying the functional information of commodities. according to the "field theory" proposed by sociologist bourdieu: in the field, commodities show their own value with the strength and brand influence of manufacturers, and celebrities increase the popularity of commodities with their personality influence. both parties interact with consumers through advertising media to achieve the construction of meaning. obviously, from the perspective of the relationship theory constructed by bourdieu, commodities themselves reflect functional and value information and are the "protagonists" in the transaction link. celebrities only play a secondary role in conveying the functional information of commodities.in the live streaming e-commerce model, the personal influence of celebrities becomes the main reason for facilitating transactions, and the goods become the "supporting role" in the transaction process.this is because consumers are often influenced by many external factors when making consumption choices. in particular, consumers who are fans are easily influenced by the idols they admire, and are prone to blindly trust the products promoted by the anchors instead of strictly inspecting the products. a sociological study shows that when consumers watch live broadcasts of internet celebrities and interact with them, they will have a sense of social presence. under the influence of social presence, consumers will quickly develop a sense of identification with celebrities.it is precisely based on the sense of identification with internet celebrities (celebrities) that when consumers purchase goods, they consider the celebrity’s personal influence rather than the quality of the goods.therefore, the influence of celebrity personality plays a leading role in commodity transactions.

(iii) the effect of punishing celebrity operators for illegal operations is weak

the legal consequence of illegal operation by operators is that they will inevitably receive negative evaluation from the law and society and be accompanied by a certain amount of property reduction. however, the legal consequences of illegal operation by traditional operators are different. the current laws and regulations have a weak effect on punishing illegal operation by celebrity operators.

1. little impact on the reputation of celebrity operators

the right to reputation is the social evaluation obtained by natural persons, legal persons and unincorporated organizations based on their own attributes and values. if an operator operates illegally, the first and foremost consequence is a negative impact on the operator's reputation, that is, the public's trust in the economic ability of a specific operator is damaged and the social and economic evaluation is reduced. in serious cases, the operator who has operated illegally may be discriminated against, refused to trade or restricted from entering the market.unlike the consequences of illegal punishment faced by traditional operators, the negative social evaluation of celebrity operators does not completely lead to difficulties in their careers and business. first, because my country has not established a complete social credit evaluation system, especially in the field of online live shopping, it is difficult for the public or consumers to obtain relevant information on the illegal operations of celebrity operators.in view of this, the first national standard in the industry, the "guidelines for the evaluation of the online shopping integrity service system" (hereinafter referred to as the "guidelines"), formulated by the media shopping professional committee of the china general chamber of commerce in 2020, established an internal and external evaluation system for corporate credit. internally, it mainly regulates corporate integrity management behaviors from multiple aspects such as self-inspection, self-examination, self-study, self-construction, and self-discipline; externally, it stipulates that companies should actively accept supervision from employees and society and establish an external corporate integrity evaluation system. in addition, the "guidelines" also stipulates quantitative indicators and specific calculation methods for the online shopping integrity management service system. the specific indicators mainly include contract fulfillment rate, product qualification rate, customer complaint handling rate, customer satisfaction rate, order abandonment rate, etc. it can be said that the "guidelines" fills the gap in the credit evaluation system of the online live shopping industry to a certain extent, but the norms do not have the effect of legal enforcement. the specific implementation depends entirely on corporate self-discipline, and it is difficult to achieve the effect of correcting illegal behaviors.secondly, due to the blind trust and admiration of celebrity operators by fan consumers, fan consumers have a very high tolerance and inclusiveness for the illegal or irregular business practices of celebrity operators.compared with traditional consumers, fan consumers are not only a group of excessive consumers, but also a group of loyal consumers. based on this, even if celebrity operators have implemented illegal or irregular business operations, it will not generate much negative evaluation on the personality and dignity of celebrity operators, nor will it cause difficulties in their careers and business, preventing them from continuing to engage in the live streaming industry.

2. little impact on the property interests of celebrity operators

illegal operation by operators will not only lead to a lower social evaluation of them, but also be accompanied by a reduction in the amount of certain property. in the criminal field, article 140 of my country's criminal law sets four different fines for producers or sellers of counterfeit and shoddy goods according to different illegal sales amounts, and the highest fine can be confiscated. in the civil field, my country has also established a punitive compensation system. for example, article 49 of my country's consumer rights protection law, article 96 of the food safety law, and article 1207 of the civil code all stipulate punitive compensation rules for malicious infringement by operators. these penalty norms in the criminal and civil fields show that my country's laws take a strict attitude of accountability for operators' illegal acts. of course, the realization of the purpose of legislative norms also depends on the compensation ability of operators, and the liability of operators should also be limited to their own investment or compensation ability. traditional operators mostly exist in the form of entities or companies and have corresponding compensation capabilities. however, physical operators will also suffer major economic blows in the compensation process, and some companies may even face bankruptcy.the celebrity live streaming industry, which was born in the internet economy, has the characteristics of small scale and limited operating capacity. most of these business activities are carried out by individuals on a small scale. compared with large-scale physical companies, although small operators in the live streaming industry have much weaker ability to resist operating risks, it will not cause a big impact after small operators assume responsibility.this is because risk bearing is limited to the amount of capital contribution or compensation capacity. even if the celebrity operator, as a small operator, goes bankrupt due to liability, he or she can quickly switch to other platforms to continue live streaming. for this reason, compared with traditional operators, celebrity operators have lower illegal costs and are more likely to evade product liability.

3. the restrictions on celebrity operators are relatively loose

in addition to personal and property penalties, the law also imposes strict industry access restriction standards on illegal operators for illegal production and operation. taking the production and sale of substandard food as an example, article 135 of the food safety law stipulates the circumstances in which operators are prohibited from engaging in business after illegal operation. in september 2020, article 3.5 of the guidelines for the responsibility of food sellers for food safety (trial) issued by the state administration for market regulation made more stringent and detailed provisions on the access restriction standards for illegal operators. that is, in the field of food operation, different industry access restriction standards are made according to the severity of the illegal production and operation of operators. in the case of minor violations, the business license will be revoked and the operator will be prohibited from engaging in work related to food production and operation within 5 years. in the case of serious violations, the operator will be prohibited from engaging in work related to food production and operation for life. it can be seen that relevant laws and departmental regulations in my country have stipulated relatively strict industry access restriction standards for illegal operators.at present, these regulations cannot adapt to the new situation of e-commerce platforms and e-commerce development in different forms, especially when celebrities are operators. for celebrity operators of live streaming, the prohibition of employment regulations cannot play its due regulatory function.on the contrary, since the live streaming industry cannot have the compliance costs and compensation capabilities like large-scale companies, many previous laws have set lower compliance standards for such activities for the sake of proportionality. taking this into account, articles 14 and 15 of the "internet live streaming service management regulations" issued by the state internet information office stipulate the employment restriction standards for internet live streaming publishers who violate laws, regulations and service agreements. this regulation has a certain indicative effect on the live streaming industry, which is currently unregulated, but it does not make clear provisions on the extent of restrictions that can be taken under what circumstances. instead, it stipulates that internet live streaming service providers take corresponding disposal measures according to the circumstances, giving internet live streaming service providers great autonomy. therefore, the regulation finally became a formality and had little effect in practice. in addition, as the maker of platform rules and the executor of disposal mechanisms, commercial platforms do not always play their neutral role. in essence, commercial platforms are profit-making organizations, and their ultimate goal is to make profits. they cannot completely replace public authorities in performing their duties prescribed by law, which makes the employment restriction standards for celebrity operators more relaxed than those for traditional operators.

in summary, the celebrity live streaming sales model is to apply the influence accumulated by celebrities in other fields to the field of commodity sales. in this process, there is no close connection between the celebrity's personality influence and the commodity; the commodity is not the focus of market players; and the current laws are not ideal for punishing celebrities who violate the law. these factors have become the essential difference between the celebrity live streaming sales model and the traditional marketing model.

▍how consumers’ rights are infringed under the celebrity live streaming sales model

celebrity managers influence other people's consumption preferences based on their achievements in other fields, causing consumers to consider the celebrity manager's personal influence rather than the quality of the goods when purchasing them. this violates the rules of normal commodity transactions, easily puts consumers at a disadvantage, and infringes upon their legitimate rights and interests.

1. right to know

the so-called consumer right to know refers to the right of consumers to know the true situation of the goods or services they purchase. there is information asymmetry between operators and consumers, and the establishment of the right to know is intended to correct this asymmetric state. the emergence of the internet economy has broken the traditional trading rules and aggravated the problem of information asymmetry between consumers and operators. the celebrity live streaming model has further aggravated this problem. first of all, this is related to the objective background of the internet information age. different from the traditional face-to-face transaction model in the past, internet live streaming shopping makes it difficult for consumers to personally experience the goods being traded. consumers can only learn about goods or services through product pictures or video introductions provided by celebrity operators. at the same time,since consumers lack professional knowledge in the corresponding fields, the realization of their right to know depends entirely on whether the celebrity operator provides true information about the goods or services in accordance with the principle of good faith.secondly, consumers’ excessive trust in celebrity operators exacerbates the information asymmetry between the two. as mentioned earlier, in the celebrity live streaming sales model,the relevant information of the product is not the main focus of consumers. instead, the recommendation strength of the celebrity operator is what matters. this leads to consumers' over-reliance on celebrity operators and their tendency to let them do whatever they want.finally, the abuse of dominant position in trading markets by celebrity operators is also an important factor exacerbating the information asymmetry between the two.celebrity operators occupy a dominant position in the trading market, but it should also be noted that the nature of business entities to pursue profits and avoid harm can easily lead to celebrity operators abusing the dominant position in commodity information they occupy during the transaction process.in practice, many celebrity operators abuse their dominant position in the market to infringe on consumers' right to know. for example, in the case of "unfair competition dispute between shenzhen tencent computer systems co., ltd. and yang shuanghao and zhejiang taobao network co., ltd.", celebrity operators used fake traffic to fabricate the attention of their live broadcast services. the yuhang district people's court of hangzhou city, zhejiang province held that the defendant had obviously misled consumers, causing consumers to mistakenly believe that the quality of its live broadcast services was good, destroying the normal information evaluation mechanism of the penguin e-sports live broadcast platform, and infringing on consumers' right to know. in addition, in practice, celebrity operators have infringed on consumers' right to know in other ways: the actual information of celebrity operators does not match the information registered on the business license, exaggerates the performance and efficacy of goods, falsely reports prices, sells counterfeit and shoddy goods, provides consumers with incomplete product or service information, etc. the infringements of celebrity operators are too common to list. for celebrity operators who have an absolute advantage in product or service information, it is difficult for consumers to truly protect their right to know in the online environment.

2. right to choose independently

article 9 of my country's consumer protection law stipulates that consumers have the right to freely choose goods or services when trading. however, my country's laws do not clearly define the definition of the right of autonomous choice. there are many different views in academia. the general view is that the right of autonomous choice should be composed of subjective voluntariness and objective freedom. the voluntariness of consumers is based on their subjective wishes, emphasizing that consumer behavior is the result of their subjective and voluntary choices.the so-called freedom means that when consumers buy goods, they are not subject to interference from illegal external forces such as inducement, coercion, fraud, etc. the exercise of consumers' right to choose autonomously is affected by a combination of subjective and objective factors. under the celebrity live streaming model, consumers' right to choose autonomously is difficult to be effectively guaranteed. the most important reason for this is that consumers' needs are no longer focused on the function of the goods themselves, but on spiritual needs beyond material things.in other words, consumers can perceive a spiritual state beyond themselves from their belief in celebrity operators and use it as their own code of conduct. in this case, although the consumer's willingness to buy is a genuine expression of intention, it is very likely that the goods accepted by the consumer deviate from the actual demand, and the consumer's subjective voluntariness is difficult to effectively guarantee. in addition, in practice, celebrity operators often interfere with consumers' freedom of choice by illegal means such as inducement, coercion, and deception, such as inducing consumers to consume, defrauding consumers with inferior goods, and bundling and selling goods that consumers are unwilling to buy, all of which seriously infringe on consumers' right to choose independently.

(iii) right to fair trade

the right to fair trade refers to the right of consumers to have fair and reasonable market exchanges with operators and to refuse forced trading behaviors when purchasing goods or receiving services. fairness in transactions should first be formal fairness, and formal fairness in transactions also needs to be supplemented by substantive fairness. the system of formal fairness is rooted in the equality of transaction subjects in traditional civil and commercial law, and follows the autonomy of transaction subjects, while substantive fairness is rooted in the pursuit of maximizing social benefits and the concept of protecting the weak in social law. from a realistic perspective, in the celebrity live streaming model, the transaction status between consumers and celebrity operators does not meet the premise of formal fairness. in traditional transactions, consumers and operators are originally in a state of information asymmetry. the real information and quantity of goods or services are controlled by operators, and operators also have the right to set prices independently. consumers in a weak position can only passively accept the transaction information and transaction conditions given by operators. therefore, in the configuration of rights and obligations, the law strengthens the rights of consumers on one side and the obligations of operators on the other side, in order to achieve substantive fairness in transactions between consumers and operators.however, in the celebrity-led sales model, consumers’ disadvantaged position is more obvious. on the one hand, with the support of big data technology, consumers’ disadvantaged position relative to operators has not changed, and the disadvantage of information asymmetry is more prominent.for example, celebrity operators use big data technology to collect and process consumer data to create "precise portraits" of individual consumers, thereby more comprehensively grasping consumers' preferences and needs. however, the formal fairness judgment standard based on the equal trading capabilities of the trading subjects cannot solve this problem of unequal trading capabilities; on the other hand, consumers' blind worship of celebrity operators leads to consumers purchasing goods not based on considerations of product quality, but to a large extent, they have trust interests in the personal character of celebrities.when celebrities use their personal influence to attract consumers, an unequal relationship is created between them. consumers can only passively accept the price offered by celebrity operators and do not enjoy the bargaining power in the actual transaction. this violates equality and fairness in commodity transactions and affects consumers' rational choices.therefore, the celebrity endorsement model has special sales characteristics compared to the traditional marketing model, which requires that this sales model should be given more external regulation, that is, supplemented by substantive fairness.

4. personal information and privacy rights

personal information is a variety of information that can be used alone or in combination with other information to identify a citizen's personal identity. consumer personal information has extremely high commercial value and has become an important "strategic resource" for operators to compete. however, while operators are making extensive use of consumer personal information to generate revenue, they are also posing threats to consumers' personal information, such as arbitrarily handling consumer personal information. this is particularly evident in the celebrity endorsement model. the reason is thatconsumers often have high expectations for celebrity operators to protect their personal information based on their trust in them. however, most operators lack effective management and relevant information protection capabilities, which means that the personal data they hold is at risk of being leaked at any time. this will lead to more widespread infringement of consumers' personal information.a typical case is that a consumer was "precision-scammed" after shopping on a live streaming platform of a celebrity, and lost 410,000 yuan. the direct cause of the case was that the celebrity operator or the platform did not protect the personal information of consumers, resulting in the leakage of personal information of consumers, and finally causing economic losses to consumers.

the right to privacy is a concept very similar to personal information. article 1032, paragraph 2 of the civil code clearly defines the concept of privacy, namely, "privacy is the peace of a natural person's private life and the private space, private activities, and private information that he or she does not want others to know." since consumers' private information contains huge economic benefits, some operators will illegally collect and use consumers' private information to obtain commercial benefits. for example, after obtaining consumers' consumption habits and privacy preferences, they will send a large number of spam emails and make harassing calls, which will pose a huge threat to consumers' private space, private activities, private information and personal dignity. as japanese scholar masahiko aoki said, there is an unbalanced game relationship between operators and consumers. celebrity operators are obviously stronger than consumers in all transaction links. in the absence of a strong legal protection system, consumers find it difficult to resist the arbitrary processing of their personal information and the infringement of their privacy rights by celebrity operators.

(v) right to claim damages

the right to claim damages refers to the right of consumers to obtain compensation according to law if they suffer personal or property damage due to the purchase, use of goods or acceptance of services. in terms of the realization of rights, the consumer rights protection law stipulates that consumers can seek relief for their legitimate rights and interests through five channels: negotiation, mediation, complaint, arbitration and litigation.however, in practice, consumers are often in a passive position in negotiations and mediation. in addition, the judicial remedies for consumers’ legitimate rights and interests are cumbersome and time-consuming, making it difficult for consumers to realize their demands in a timely manner.according to statistics, among the consumers surveyed in my country, 37.3% have encountered consumption problems when shopping on-site, but only 13.6% of consumers complained after encountering problems. after further investigation of consumers who did not complain, it was found that most consumers gave up their rights because the losses were small, the complaint process was complicated, and the complaints were useless.in addition, there is a lack of exclusivity between the influence of celebrity personality and commodities, and it is difficult for consumers to locate the responsible party when exercising their right to claim damages. the difficulty in determining the responsible party is also one of the reasons why consumers' right to claim damages is difficult to realize.according to a set of data released by the china consumers association in 2020, domestic consumers currently have a vague understanding of the role of anchors in transactions. relevant data show that 38.5% of respondents believe that anchors are operators, 30.8% of respondents believe that anchors are not operators, and 30.7% of respondents are unclear about the role of anchors. the ambiguity of consumers' understanding of the responsible party will have a direct impact on consumer rights protection.in addition, in addition to operators and consumers, transaction relationships also involve third-party business platforms, logistics companies, electronic banks, etc. the trend of diversified subjects in the online transaction process has replaced the singleness of the original legal relationship subject, bringing about an increase in rights and obligations and a redistribution among different subjects.the diversification of entities has led to a variety of possible reasons for the infringement of consumer rights and interests, and has further increased the difficulty for consumers to identify the responsible entity. in addition, the weak repayment ability of celebrity operators is another reason that hinders consumers from realizing their right to claim damages. for example, in the "ximba selling fake bird's nest incident" that occurred in november 2020, celebrity operators promised to compensate consumers three times the amount of fake products, but many consumers have not received sufficient compensation since the incident.

adam smith described it in his book the wealth of nations: "consumption is the sole purpose of all production, and the interests of producers should only be taken into account when promoting the interests of consumers." that is, the relationship between operators and consumers is mutually reinforcing, and operators can only enhance their own value by satisfying consumer needs and protecting consumer interests. based on the dominant position of celebrity operators in market transactions, it is difficult for scattered consumers with weak economic strength to compete with them. in this context, the protection of consumers should be strengthened to reflect the basic concept of substantive fairness of the law.