In the noisy live broadcast room, there are a variety of commodities, and the transaction order data is constantly refreshed… Daily necessities, agricultural products, special snacks, training courses, etc. enter the live broadcast room, and the online live broadcast brings new development opportunities for all walks of life. The rapid development of live broadcast e-commerce has made consumption faster and more convenient, and opened up a wider market for commodities. But at the same time, the chaos behind the live delivery of goods is not uncommon. Problems such as “water army” swiping orders, wrong goods, exaggerated publicity, and inflated prices have plagued consumers.
This year’s government work report pointed out that vigorously develop the digital economy, improve the level of normalized supervision, and support the development of the platform economy. The work report of the Supreme People’s Court pointed out that new business models and new models such as live streaming with goods and paid on-demand broadcasting should be regulated, innovative operations should be protected, and illegal profit-seeking should be punished.
Further standardizing new formats such as webcasting is an important part of promoting the healthy development of the platform economy. Facing the concerns of consumers, how to strengthen the supervision of live broadcast platforms, build a live broadcast shopping environment that reassures consumers, and promote the sustainable and healthy development of the live broadcast industry? In this regard, the reporter conducted an interview and research.
Live broadcast “rollover” continues, and consumer rights are damaged, causing concern
After Mr. Li received the cherries he bought in a live broadcast room, he was so regretful that his intestines were green. “The one I received was only half the size shown in the live broadcast room, and nearly half of it was broken. It’s really bad.”
Now, many consumers have the experience of following the trend of shopping after watching the live broadcast, and there are not a few people who have had similar experiences with Mr. Li. Recently, a baby moisturizer sold in an Internet celebrity live broadcast room, the product data mentioned in the promotion has no source, is a false advertisement, and was fined 56,430 yuan by the regulatory authority. Some health-preserving accounts are even suspected of illegal “practicing medicine”, and medicinal materials marked with “primary agricultural products” are exaggerated as “miracle medicines” that can cure many diseases. “Water army” swiping bills, falsifying data, and false bargaining are also common “methods”. In some live broadcast rooms, less than one-tenth of “real people” are among the interactive audience.
In recent years, celebrities and Internet celebrity anchors have frequently “turned over” incidents – the anchor Simba who was caught in the “bird’s nest door”, Qi Wei who was suspected of fake facial masks, the crazy little brother Yang who sold Sanwu products, and celebrities who sold fake products. Alcohol, fakes, inferior products, even products without a production license…
Mr. Li feels that consumers buy products endorsed by celebrities and Internet celebrities out of trust. However, the anchors who bring the goods do not check the quality of the products in advance, and they may not understand the goods they bring, so they can only overdraw consumers again and again. trust.
The “Online Survey Report on Consumer Satisfaction in Live E-commerce Shopping” released by the China Consumers Association shows that 37.3% of the surveyed consumers have encountered consumption problems during live shopping, “worried about the lack of guarantee of product quality” and “worried about after-sales service”. Problems” are two of the main concerns of consumers.
Generally speaking, the problems are mainly divided into several categories: one is exaggerated and false publicity, including exaggerated product performance, fake popularity, product quality defects, etc.; ; The third is that it is difficult for consumers to protect their rights after sales, the anchor does not accept returns, and the merchants “play football” with each other.
Li Yongjian, executive director of the Platform Economy Research Center of the University of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told reporters that these live e-commerce chaos prevents consumers from obtaining accurate information about products and undermines consumers’ right to know. Exaggerating the performance and functions of commodities leads to confusion of consumers’ cognition of commodities, and even damages consumers’ physical and mental health. The wrong price system and the illegal use of limit words in the live broadcast room have also greatly affected consumers’ purchase decisions.
He further gave an example that many anchors often use words such as “top” and “best” in order to attract fans to buy, but according to the provisions of the advertising law, this is a violation of the use of limit words. The Advertising Law makes it clear that advertisements that abuse limit words may be false advertisements.
“The underlying logic of the development of e-commerce live broadcasting is still based on consumer trust.” Hao Zuocheng, executive director of the Center for the Rule of Law and Sustainable Development of China University of Political Science and Law, said, “Enhancing consumer confidence is the core of expanding domestic demand. Consumers have confidence in e-commerce. Only in this way can we truly leverage the advantages of e-commerce in improving transaction efficiency, expanding transaction scale, and ensuring transaction security, and will truly increase e-commerce traffic and transaction scale to achieve a win-win situation.”
Only by strengthening management, governing chaos, and protecting consumer rights and interests can we promote the healthy and orderly development of new formats such as live broadcast e-commerce, and this also tests the wisdom of supervision.
Supervision and law enforcement are strengthened to purify the online consumption environment
Not long ago, a Chengdu pet food Co., Ltd. received a penalty decision from the market supervision department for suspected price gouging. It turned out that the company was reported for using false prices to induce consumers in the live broadcast room of a short video platform. “It is said to be a discount, but according to the sales records of the investigation, they have never sold at the original price indicated, that is, they have raised the price first and then discounted. Consumers have the right to know the real price of the product. This behavior is easily misunderstood. , is a false propaganda.” Law enforcement officials said.
In recent years, supervision has been continuously strengthened, and laws and regulations have been continuously improved, which not only consolidates platform responsibilities, but also regulates anchor behavior. For example, the “Guiding Opinions of the State Administration for Market Regulation on Strengthening the Supervision of Online Live Marketing Activities” sorts out and divides the responsibilities of the three major entities in online live marketing activities, network platforms, commodity operators, and online live broadcasters, and requires investigation and punishment of illegal online live marketing activities in accordance with the law. The “Code of Conduct for Internet Anchor” clearly states that Internet anchors must not “fabricate or falsify data traffic such as transactions, attention, views, likes, etc.”, and must not “mislead consumers through exaggerated publicity, and deceive consumers through false promises.” wait.
Hao Zuocheng believes that in the operation of live e-commerce, strengthening platform responsibility is the key point. “Aiming at the three links of live broadcast promotion, product quality, and after-sales service, as the entrance of product promotion and transactions, the platform must first ensure the entry of products, live broadcast room operators, and anchors, and screen, verify, and publicize their qualifications according to requirements. Strengthen the guidance and supervision of merchants, live broadcast personnel and live broadcast organizations in platform services.”
Recently, Chen Yifang, president of the First Civil Tribunal of the Supreme People’s Court, stated that the Supreme People’s Court has made it clear that live streaming products damage the rights and interests of consumers, and the live streaming platform should be held accountable for failing to provide real information about the live streaming room. The judicial interpretation clearly stipulates that when the live broadcast platform cannot provide the real information and effective contact information of the live broadcast room operator, it shall bear the responsibility of paying in advance; for the situation where the actual seller of the product cannot be clearly identified, the live broadcast room operator must prove that it has fulfilled the obligation of marking.
Judging from the rules of each live broadcast platform, relevant safeguards are being improved year by year. For example, Douyin e-commerce has restructured the rules of Xinshou Village, focusing on the management and control of new merchants. At present, it has intercepted more than 84,000 high-risk merchants. Kuaishou e-commerce has cooperated with more than 200 brands to build a knowledge base of counterfeit goods. In 2022, it will intercept more than 200,000 counterfeit goods and control more than 23,000 merchants suspected of selling counterfeit goods and infringing rights.
At present, the relevant legal system regulating e-commerce behavior has been relatively complete, and strengthening law enforcement and supervision has become the key. For the regulatory authorities, the establishment of a mechanism for handling consumer complaints and reports and the launch of special rectification actions are effective means.
In recent years, the market supervision department has continued to improve the online transaction supervision system, strengthened the supervision and law enforcement of online transactions, organized the “Light Up Hundreds of E-Commerce Platforms” campaign, and guided the platforms and merchants to “brighten the light”, “show the certificate” and “show the rules”; organize Carry out the 2022 Internet Market Supervision Special Action to rectify chaos such as “three noes” takeaways and “three fakes” live broadcasts, and form a strong deterrent to unscrupulous businesses. In addition, departments such as network information, market supervision, radio and television, and public security have strengthened information sharing, deepened regulatory linkages, and formed a joint governance force.
Multi-party coordinated governance to promote the orderly development of the platform economy
How credible is the “original price” mentioned by the anchor? Recently, the Douyin e-commerce company issued a public announcement on the punishment of creators for “false price discounts”, punishing more than 5,000 e-commerce authors for their violations of falsification of commodity prices. The announcement shows that the punished author has inconsistencies between the promotional price and the actual selling price of the product, acts of “bargaining” and “adding gifts” with the brand on the spot when promoting the product, exaggerating the original price or reference price of the product, and falsely promising price protection services, etc. , Seriously affecting the consumer shopping experience and the fair competition environment of the platform.
“We have established a relatively complete quality evaluation system, which makes a more pre-evaluation of product quality, helping good products to be introduced and discovered; in addition, we adopt zero tolerance for bottom-line issues such as ‘three nos’, ‘inferior quality’ and ‘false propaganda’ Attitude.” A person in charge of an e-commerce platform said.
Strengthening supervision and platform autonomy are important aspects of purifying the online consumption environment, but there are still gaps in the governance of e-commerce platforms of different sizes for practitioners and operators.
Standardization, supervision, governance, and self-government, in the final analysis, are for better development and to meet consumers’ needs for a better life with a better consumption environment. Experts pointed out that live broadcast e-commerce has played a positive role in economic development. It is necessary to clarify the attitude of development and regulation, encourage and support the development of businesses with positive social value, release positive signals, and rebuild consumer trust. In this regard, government regulatory agencies, consumer associations, industry associations, commodity producers, e-commerce live broadcast marketing agencies, e-commerce platforms, consumers and other parties must exert their strengths and coordinate governance.
Hao Zuocheng pointed out that in addition to post-event supervision and punishment, relevant departments should also strengthen guidance before and during the event, organize and coordinate e-commerce live broadcast agencies, platforms, industry associations, etc. to jointly formulate service standards and guidelines, and jointly establish a dispute resolution mechanism. It is necessary to improve the efficiency and ability to handle complaints and reports, increase the training of live broadcast personnel, and improve the quality of live broadcast.
“The live broadcast platform should take on the responsibility of anchor training and the supervision and supervision of the whole process. The anchor should take on the moral and professional responsibilities of social citizens. The live broadcast party should be responsible for the content of the promotion, and the merchant manufacturer should be responsible for the quality of the goods.” Member of the CPPCC National Committee, Guo Yuanyuan, deputy dean of the School of Culture and Communication, Capital University of Economics and Business, said.
Guo Yuanyuan said that in terms of the professional positioning of network anchors, it is necessary to establish and improve the professional certification system for the live broadcast industry, clarify the anchor professional entry threshold, carry out vocational training, strengthen the professional standardization of anchors, further clarify the legal boundaries and responsibilities of anchors, and strengthen the anchor’s language behavior. Normative guidance.
Li Yongjian also emphasized the role of digital technology in purifying the online consumption environment. For example, the platform is encouraged to use AI technology to dynamically monitor the live broadcast room, and the platform stores evidence of the words and deeds of the anchor in the live broadcast room; the anchor is classified and classified through big data technology. Supervision; use artificial intelligence technology to give early warning of possible behaviors that may harm consumers’ rights and interests. (Lu Yuanzhen, Sun Zhipu)
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