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what shocked the outside world was that, amid controversy, the three sheep company resumed broadcasting.

according to jiupai news, on september 19, several accounts under the three sheep company, including "three sheep network", "three sheep network fruit and produce", and "three sheep network beautiful life", resumed broadcasting after two days of suspension, and several three sheep officially authorized accounts were also broadcasting normally.

from the dispute with simba over hairy crabs to the meicheng mooncake incident, the three sheep group has been in constant turmoil recently. on september 19, a reporter from upstream news (reporting email: [email protected]) went to the three sheep (hefei) holding group co., ltd. in hefei, anhui province. the park was calm, and many employees said that the company's employees were working normally.

on the same day, the hefei municipal market supervision administration stated that it had established a joint investigation team with the bureau of commerce, public security bureau and other departments to investigate and handle the matter in accordance with the law.

in order to further understand the company's situation, on september 20, a reporter from upstream news sent an interview outline to the three sheep corporate email address, but no reply was received as of press time.

"the core of this incident is whether the live streamer of three sheep misled consumers." on september 20, gu zhun, an expert at kant think tank and a lawyer at shanghai guangming law firm, told upstream news that if law enforcement agencies intervene in the investigation and confirm that false advertising is established, the live streamer and three sheep may face penalties such as being ordered to stop illegal activities, eliminate the impact, being fined, or even having their business licenses revoked, according to the anti-unfair competition law and the advertising law. specifically, if the false advertising is serious, a fine of less than 2 million yuan may be imposed.

the three sheep group building. photo by upstream news reporter qi xin

three sheep

while the outside world has been discussing the three sheep for a long time, the three sheep at the center of the storm seem exceptionally calm.

on september 19, a reporter from upstream news arrived at the three sheep company park in hefei hi-tech zone and saw many cars parked on the road in front of the company and inside the park. there were also many electric vehicles parked in the parking garage next to the company's gate. there were also delivery guys coming in and out from time to time to deliver food, creating a peaceful and orderly atmosphere.

inside the park, everything was peaceful. upstream news reporters saw some employees smoking and resting in the corridors of the office building, some walking around the park, and some entering and exiting the gate from time to time. there is a cafeteria inside the company, but there are no restaurants or convenience stores near the company. even at noon, few employees go out to eat. in a room with live broadcast lighting, several headlights were on, and it was suspected that a host was broadcasting live.

as the sky gradually darkened, you could clearly see lights on in many offices in the three sheep group building. after 6:30 p.m., many employees walked out of the company gate and waited for online ride-hailing cars on the roadside.

at 6:39 p.m. on september 19, employees waiting for online ride-hailing vehicles at the gate of the three sheep company after get off work. photo by qi xin, a reporter from upstream news

upstream news reporters approached the company to ask about the company's situation under the pretext of seeking a job. many three sheep employees told reporters that the company was still operating normally. "of course it's working normally." "it's working normally now." "am i not working normally now?" some employees told reporters. at the same time, many employees were obviously wary of the reporter's inquiries: "don't ask me, i don't know." "it's not convenient to answer this question."

the live streaming e-commerce business of three sheep also seems to have not been affected. on the morning of september 20, a reporter from upstream news searched the douyin platform with the keyword "three sheep network" and saw accounts including "three sheep network" and "three sheep network fruit and fresh" live streaming.

the douyin account of "crazy little brother yang" shows that the account has not started a new live broadcast since the live broadcast on september 7. gray pig data shows that in the past 7 days, the account has lost more than 1.46 million fans, and in the past 30 days, it has lost more than 3 million fans. as of press time, the account has 120 million fans.

"crazy little yang" account data. image source: gray pig data screenshot

brother yang "fell" on the mooncake

the debate surrounding the three sheep and brother yang has been dominating the hot search lists on major platforms in recent times.

the cause of the incident was a dispute over hairy crabs between xiao yangge and another top anchor simba. at the end of august, simba was promoting "crab lady" crab cards in his live broadcast room, but was informed by the brand that the price mechanism had been reported, making it impossible to continue selling. simba then began to "bombard" xiao yangge.

"you don't have quality inspection, you don't have after-sales service, you don't have an attitude of compensation, you don't have an attitude of taking responsibility, you have nothing and all that's left is hype." simba also questioned xiao yangge's business model and said he would set aside 100 million yuan to compensate xiao yangge for consumers who had previously bought problematic products such as pork with preserved vegetables and pork belly made with trough-head meat and hair dryers without any certification from xiao yangge in his live broadcast room.

brother yang's eyes turned red during the live broadcast. "brothers, you can scold me, but please don't scold our colleagues," brother yang said.

three sheep never gave a positive response to the product issue. what really pushed the incident to a climax was a small mooncake. in a widely circulated video on the internet, the big and small yang brothers were selling mooncakes in the live broadcast room, saying that "meicheng is a big brand, hong kong meicheng" and "it was made by a michelin master." the hong kong actor zeng zhiwei who appeared in the live broadcast room seemed to be the background board of the mooncakes. however, soon some netizens said that "hong kong meicheng mooncakes" seemed to have little to do with "hong kong".

according to red star news, many agents and netizens said that meicheng mooncakes has no stores in hong kong, and the origin information of the mooncakes is basically guangzhou and foshan. as the incident escalated, on september 17, the hefei high-tech zone market supervision and administration bureau issued a notice to investigate the suspected misleading of consumers in the live broadcast of three sheep, and will deal with it according to the law and regulations based on the investigation results.

on september 18, the guangzhou huadu district market supervision and administration bureau issued a report on the situation involving meicheng mooncakes: hong kong meicheng food group has registered trademarks such as "meicheng", "hong kong meicheng mooncakes" and "meisun" in hong kong for mooncake products, and authorized them to guangzhou meicheng food co., ltd. for use. the manufacturer, guangzhou meicheng food technology co., ltd., has not yet found any illegal activities.

on september 19, the hefei municipal market supervision administration issued a notice that it has established a joint investigation team with the bureau of commerce, public security bureau and other departments to verify and handle the matter in accordance with the law and regulations and resolutely safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of consumers.

"the key point in determining suspected false advertising lies mainly in whether the anchor deliberately states false facts or conceals the truth, causing consumers to misunderstand and buy the product." gu zhun told upstream news reporters.

"in this incident, the key point that the three sheep live broadcaster was suspected of false advertising was that the content of the promotion did not match the actual situation, causing misunderstanding and deception of consumers." on september 20, fu jian, director of henan zejin law firm, told upstream news reporters.

fu jian said that if false advertising is found after investigation, the anchor and seller may be subject to administrative penalties, including fines, orders to suspend business for rectification, etc. the specific punishment will depend on the degree and severity of the false advertising. according to the anti-unfair competition law and other laws and regulations, once false advertising is verified, the operator may be fined accordingly and ordered to stop the illegal behavior.

live streaming e-commerce needs to be more regulated

in fact, in addition to the meicheng mooncake incident, there are still many problems in the live streaming e-commerce industry.

simba, who "blasted" xiao yangge this time, also had a fake bird's nest incident in 2020. according to beijing business daily, simba apologized afterwards and said that he would recall the relevant products and assume the responsibility of refunding one and compensating three, with an amount of more than 60 million yuan; he would pursue the legal responsibility of the brand and the team would also make rectifications.

other small and medium-sized anchors selling fakes are not uncommon. according to the beijing news, in early august this year, the xilu police station of the fangshan branch of the beijing municipal public security bureau received a report from ms. wang that from july 25 to 27, ms. wang spent more than 30,000 yuan to buy 10 famous paintings in a live broadcast room. all of them came with national certification certificates, but they were all counterfeits. the police found that the suspect established an account on the live broadcast platform, rented a luxury car to shoot videos, and used ps to retouch pictures, etc., to create a fictitious persona and package the identity of the anchor. later, the imitations were passed off as famous calligraphy and paintings, and sold through the live broadcast room to defraud huge profits.

similar incidents are emerging one after another. at a time when live streaming e-commerce is developing in full swing, it is worth paying attention to how consumers can avoid "stepping on mines" and effectively protect their personal rights.

"in the field of live streaming, there are currently many laws and regulations to protect the legitimate rights of consumers." gu zhun told upstream news reporters that, for example, the consumer rights protection law clearly stipulates the basic rights of consumers such as the right to know, the right to choose, and the right to fair trade, and requires operators to provide true and comprehensive product information. in addition, the e-commerce law also regulates the behavior of e-commerce operators based on the characteristics of online transactions, including requiring them to provide clear product information and protecting consumers' rights to return and exchange goods. these laws and regulations together constitute a legal system to protect consumers' shopping rights in live streaming rooms.

at the same time, gu zhun also admitted that the top anchors have a strong ability to bring goods, and there are indeed some defects in the current industry supervision. "for example, the supervision may not be strict enough, resulting in some anchors violating regulations in the process of bringing goods; the supervision methods may not be advanced enough to effectively deal with the challenges brought by the emerging industry of live streaming sales." gu zhun said.

gu zhun believes that supervision should be strengthened and the requirements for top anchors should be raised to ensure that they comply with laws and regulations in the process of bringing goods; at the same time, innovative supervision methods should be adopted, and advanced technologies such as big data and artificial intelligence should be used to strengthen supervision and improve the efficiency and accuracy of supervision. in addition, a more complete complaint and reporting mechanism can be established to enable consumers to more conveniently safeguard their rights and interests.

upstream news reporter qi xin