more than a month after the new live streaming sales rules came into effect, anchors have switched to "skirting the line" in their sales
2024-09-25
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more than a month after the new live streaming regulations were implemented, reporters visited the live streaming rooms of multiple platforms——
the anchors are now selling goods and are playing "edge ball"
"you all understand what i mean, but i have to comply with the regulations and i dare not say it out loud," "the platform doesn't allow me to say it and i'm afraid i'll be taken away directly," "the platform has new regulatory rules and cannot be introduced directly"... in the live broadcast room, the anchor introduced the product with a beaming smile while emphasizing it to the audience.
after the release of the "beijing livestreaming sales compliance guidelines" on august 9, various livestreaming rooms have obviously become more "ruled up". however, a recent visit by reporters found that some anchors kept saying "compliance" but were actually playing "small moves" and "skirting the edge" when selling goods, using new tricks.
visit 1
"lowest price on the entire network" is not allowed to be used instead of "price comparison" to deceive buyers
●regulations
do not mislead consumers with "the lowest price on the entire network"
"family members, this is the lowest price on the entire network, only available today", "we and the platform get money to subsidize this, and it's the lowest price of the year"... before this, whenever there was a big promotion, major live broadcast rooms often encouraged consumers to "buy, buy, buy" at low prices.
the "guidelines" stipulate that when conducting sales promotion activities by means of price comparison, the compared prices and sales prices shall be clearly marked or indicated in other ways that are convenient for consumers to understand. the compared prices shall be true and accurate and shall not mislead consumers by false statements such as "the lowest price on the entire network."
in recent days, the reporter has entered the live broadcast rooms of multiple platforms at several time periods and found that expressions such as "the lowest price on the entire network" and "below the floor price" have been significantly reduced, and are even less common in brand live broadcast rooms. however, some misleading new low-price rhetoric is secretly popular.
"the yellow bike has a surprise! it's cheaper than a lot of other stores and it's only on sale for one day!" on september 20, the reporter entered the "xuan xuan good things" live broadcast room and saw the anchor's eye-catching reminder. at first glance, the daily necessities in the live broadcast room are very cheap: a box of lavender laundry detergent starts at 2.9 yuan, a 66-watt super fast charging head starts at 0.01 yuan, and a double-layer primary school pencil case starts at 0.98 yuan.
"there's not much stock left, it's cheaper than a certain store! just compare, hurry up and buy it!" the reporter clicked on a link labeled "whole box wholesale lavender laundry detergent" and found that there was no whole box wholesale at all. the actual price of a 10-jin barrel of laundry detergent was 15.9 yuan, and 2.9 yuan could only buy a 300-gram bag of laundry detergent. afterwards, the reporter clicked on an e-commerce platform where the anchor repeatedly emphasized price comparisons, and searched for the same laundry detergent and found that the same laundry detergent from multiple merchants was priced at 8.8 yuan for a 10-jin package and 1.4 yuan for a 300-gram bag. the anchor's "platform price comparison" selling point is a false inducement.
some anchors even made "harsh" remarks in their live broadcast rooms. in the "kezi" live broadcast room, two anchors had their hands tied behind their backs, their expressions serious, and bright red signs around their necks that read: "making money is a grandson!" "if you earn a penny, you will be struck by lightning!"
during the interaction, the two anchors kept emphasizing that "it's absolutely cheap, feel free to buy it, and return it to me if you don't like it." however, the reporter found that the items in this live broadcast room did not have a price advantage. for example, a midea classic turntable microwave oven is priced at 299 yuan in the live broadcast room link, 279 yuan in other live broadcast rooms on the same platform, and 277 yuan in a taobao store.
visit 2
food can prevent cancer and cure diseases. don't dare to talk about it. just keep talking about academic words to bluff people.
●regulations
no disease prevention or treatment functions should be involved
"the element of longevity", "the king of anti-cancer", "the spark of life"... previously, these ordinary dietary supplements were touted by the anchors as precious "secret medicines" that could cure all diseases.
in response to the chaos of selling health food in live broadcasts, the "guidelines" clearly state that advertisements for food, cosmetics, and daily beauty products must not involve disease prevention and treatment functions, and must not use medical terms or terms that may easily confuse the promoted goods and services with drugs, medical devices, and medical services.
the reporter found in multiple live broadcast rooms for several consecutive days that when the anchors introduced ordinary foods, they significantly reduced the use of simple and crude words such as directly claiming to prevent cancer and cure diseases. instead, they used various academic terms that sounded professional and intimidating, but secretly they were still exaggerating the medicinal value of ordinary foods.
"the h9 anti-gravity factor in it can act on your tyrosinase through oral administration." "astaxanthin is also added in it, which is very stable. it makes your melanin inactive, reduces the spots on your face, and prevents rebound"... in a live broadcast room, a female anchor was holding a bottle of "h9 anti-gravity" tablets, and professional terms such as "factor", "tyrosinase", "astaxanthin" and "melanin" popped out of her mouth from time to time, promoting these ingredients as having magical effects such as whitening, removing spots, and eliminating bags under the eyes.
the live broadcast room shows that this product has sold more than 1,400 orders. judging from the product reviews, there are many repeat customers, and some people even bought 6 bottles at a time. however, the reporter saw on the outer packaging of the product that this is not a medicine, not even a health product, but a gel candy. the top three ingredients in the ingredient list are glycerin, soybean oil and water. glycerin is mainly used as a moisture retainer and emulsifier in food to sweeten and moisturize. the following ingredients are haematococcus pluvialis, grape seed extract, sweet orange extract, pineapple extract, etc., and there are no exaggerated factors mentioned by the anchor. the only thing related to astaxanthin is haematococcus pluvialis, which is its natural extraction source.
"at present, most of the research on the health benefits of astaxanthin are cell experiments and animal experiments, and evidence from humans is often isolated." experts from the beijing association for science and technology once published an article to refute the rumor, saying that as of now, there is neither a drug available for astaxanthin nor reliable evidence to support it. the expert group of the european food safety authority has previously evaluated more than a dozen "health functions" of astaxanthin and concluded that all of them are "insufficient evidence."
it is also common to confuse ordinary foods with medicines after packaging them with academic terms in other live broadcast rooms. the reporter found that categories such as fat-burning enzyme drinks, collagen peptide solid drinks, and lactic acid bacteria tablet candies are all "hard-hit areas" that promote functional efficacy. for example: although it is clearly "lactic acid bacteria tablet candy", the anchor keeps hinting that the product can be used to treat hpv virus, and publicly displays a series of treatable virus models and efficacy on the big screen.
visit 3
"national-level products" are not allowed to be passed off as "imported goods"
●regulations
no false advertising of product function or quality
"national quality", "the only product in the world", "the best level in the industry"... previously, there were many cases where some anchors violated regulations and laws by using "extreme words" in advertisements.
in response to this issue, the "guidelines" stipulate that operators of live streaming rooms, live streaming sales personnel, and live streaming sales service agencies engaged in live streaming sales activities must comply with the provisions of the "anti-unfair competition law of the people's republic of china" and must not make false or misleading commercial advertisements about the performance, functions, quality, sales status, user reviews, etc. of goods or services to deceive or mislead consumers.
during the investigation, the reporter found that with the further tightening of platform supervision, the phenomenon of abusing "extreme words" in live broadcast rooms has been significantly reduced, but in order to highlight the uniqueness of the products, the anchors have played another trick - ordinary goods disguised as high-end international brands.
the "hong kong meicheng mooncakes" that have recently sparked heated public debate is a typical case. around the mid-autumn festival, crazy xiao yangge (real name zhang qingyang) and his three sheep company promoted "hong kong meicheng mooncakes" as a hong kong brand and invited hong kong movie star eric tsang to appear in the live broadcast room. however, some consumers found that meicheng mooncakes are not sold in hong kong, and several agents also said that this mooncake brand has no stores in hong kong and is produced in guangzhou, guangdong and foshan, guangdong. recently, the market supervision department has filed a case against the company for suspected "misleading consumers" and other behaviors in the live broadcast.
ms. jin, a citizen, also encountered a similar trick and almost fell into a trap. in early september, ms. jin wanted to buy a new pot. she heard that german pots were good, so she looked for them in the live broadcast room. she saw a host promoting a medical stone pot, which was known as a high-end german kitchenware brand and specially introduced german physical non-stick pot technology. in order to highlight the german "bloodline", the live broadcast room also specially marked the "international brand, trustworthy" logo in a prominent position.
"it looks good, a german pot for only 159 yuan!" ms. jin was about to pay when she suddenly found that the german name of the brand was spelled in chinese pinyin. she then checked the product details page and found that the manufacturer of the pot was zhejiang yongkang qiangsheng electric co., ltd. as for the "german authorization letter" posted on the product details page, it was a trademark registration number registration certificate, and the trademark holder was from sanmenxia, henan province.
they said they were german precision nail clippers, but the manufacturer was in yangjiang, guangdong; they said they were imported from japan, but the origin was in zhenjiang, jiangsu; they said they were british brand laundry detergent, but the manufacturer was in shijiazhuang, hebei... during the investigation, the reporter encountered such situations many times in the live broadcast room. when questioning the customer service, some argued that it was "german craftsmanship", some changed their words to "japanese style", and some simply "read it but didn't reply".
suggestion
live streaming sales platform
how to recite the "tightening curse"
using algorithms
capture suspected illegal information
"it is difficult to prohibit language and words one by one through laws and regulations. a more appropriate approach is to establish a framework of principles and open a channel for consumers to complain. as long as false advertising objectively exists, it should be punished without getting hung up on specific words." pan helin, a member of the information and communications economy expert committee of the ministry of industry and information technology, suggested that platforms could take two paths. one is to use algorithms to capture information that is suspected of violating regulations and manually review whether it is compliant. the other is to manually review the facts in a timely manner based on user complaints.
live streaming platform
increase product review efforts
"at present, the punishment of anchors by live broadcast platforms is still not strong enough." wu di, a lawyer at beijing deheng law firm, believes that live broadcast platforms should establish a stricter punishment mechanism. once the products promoted by anchors are falsely advertised, the platform should take timely measures, such as removing the videos of the products involved, restricting their rights to sell goods, reducing traffic support, or even suspending their live broadcast qualifications. for anchors who have a history of "turnover", the platform can increase the review of the products they promote.
online shopping
you can directly claim compensation from the platform
what should consumers do if they find that they have been deceived or misled by the promotion when buying things in the live broadcast room? chen yinjiang, deputy secretary-general of the china consumer rights protection law research association, said that according to existing laws, consumers can first communicate with the merchant for goods purchased online. if the merchant does not solve the problem, they can seek assistance from the platform or complain to the consumer association and market supervision department. in addition, if the live broadcast platform cannot provide the merchant's contact information and the consumer cannot find the merchant, they have the right to claim compensation directly from the platform.
our reporter yuan lu
(beijing evening news)
