According to Tianyancha, the brand involved in the “fake bird’s nest incident” is Guangzhou Rongyu Trading Co., Ltd. The company was established in January 2019, and the administrative penalty information shows that the company was fined 2 million yuan and its business license was revoked in January 2021 due to false propaganda and defective product labels.
Tianyancha also shows that on August 19, 2022, the Guangzhou Intermediate People’s Court issued a consumption restriction order. The applicant was Shuyang Heyi Information Technology Co., Ltd., an affiliate of Xinxuan Group, and the person to be executed was the operator of Mingzhi Bird’s Nest. Xie Dongsheng, the legal representative of Guangzhou Rongyu Trading Co., Ltd.
The staff of Xinxuan Group, a live e-commerce company founded by anchor Simba, revealed that the trial of the “fake bird’s nest” case is still in progress. According to the data provided by Xinxuan Group, as of January 14, 2022, the group has paid a total of 41,439,216 yuan to consumers related to the bird’s nest incident, and stated that “our company has been able to contact and meet the conditions for refunds. Consumers have been paid.”
Simba Company continues to break the news:
Besides Liu Genghong,There are more stars involved in fake bird’s nest
In response to Simba’s revelation that “Liu Genghong also brought the bird’s nest for Mingzhi”, at noon on August 31, 2022, Kunshan Talent Planet Culture Media Co., Ltd. to which Liu Genghong belongs issued a statement in response, saying that Liu Genghong and his wife had not sold Mingzhi bird’s nest on the Douyin platform. product, but had contact with the product in the Taobao e-commerce live broadcast during the cooperation with Hangzhou Maikong Company.
Talent Planet announced that Guangzhou Rongyu has not yet confirmed with Maikong whether the bird’s nest sold by the latter on Taobao Live is the same batch of products as the fake bird’s nest exposed on other platforms later.
Subsequently, Maikong Company issued an announcement stating that from September to October 2020, its “Mingzhi” brand bowl-packed bird’s nest products sold a total of 177 orders in the live broadcast room of Liu Genghong and his wife. In November of the same year, a bird’s nest dispute broke out in other live broadcast rooms. The company has assisted consumers in defending their rights with the brand as soon as possible, and refunded 25 orders within a week. Due to the inability to obtain all customer information, it was unable to pay compensation to consumers who did not make a claim.
According to this announcement, in 2021, Maikong has terminated the cooperation with Liu Genghong and his wife, and is willing to take responsibility. For consumers in the live broadcast room of Liu Genghong and his wife who failed to get a refund from the merchant at that time, they will continue to pay indefinitely on their behalf.
Liu Genghong’s personal Weibo account posted a message on August 31, saying that he had found data and proofs from two years ago, “I am very sorry for the lack of rigorous selection of products from the company I previously cooperated with, which has caused damage to consumers who trust me.”
↑Liu Genghong’s Weibo voice
Xinxuan Group is a live broadcast e-commerce company founded by anchor Simba. Insiders of the group provided a list to Red Star News reporters. In addition to Liu Genghong, the list also includes nearly 20 well-known stars and anchors.
According to the insider, these stars and anchors have recommended Mingzhi bird’s nest products in their live broadcast rooms.
Live e-commerce companies claim to be unaware
“Fake bird’s nest” manufacturers accused of deliberately providing false materials
Insiders of Xinxuan Group also provided Red Star News with a statement of defense prepared by Xinxuan Group against the public interest civil lawsuit initiated by Henan Consumers Association.
In this statement of defense, the group mentioned that Guangzhou Rongyu Company, the manufacturer and seller of Mingzhi bird’s nest products, had deliberately provided false materials and deceived Guangzhou Heyi Company, an affiliated company of Xinxuan Group, about the main ingredients of Mingzhi bird’s nest products. , the content of bird’s nest and other key information, which led to the anchors of Xinxuan Group to make false or misleading commercial promotion behaviors about Mingzhi bird’s nest products without knowing the truth.
In the statement of defense given by Xinxuan Group, Guangzhou Heyi Company claimed that as the promoter of the product, it had carefully reviewed the various materials and qualification documents provided by Guangzhou Rongyu Company before the live broadcast promotion. It shows that the quality of Mingzhi bird’s nest products is qualified.
According to Xin Xuan’s proposition, Guangzhou Rongyu Company directly referred to Mingzhi bird’s nest products as “bird’s nest” in the selling point card provided, and used bold and enlarged fonts to describe the main ingredients of Mingzhi bird’s nest products as “Golden Silk”. Bird’s nest, rock sugar, purified water”, and claimed that “each bowl is 100g, not less than 50% (actually 60%) of the solid content of bird’s nest, and each bowl contains about 2g of dry bird’s nest, which can be eaten immediately after opening the lid.”
Guangzhou Heyi Company therefore believes that under the circumstance of being deceived, itself and its anchors have made false or misleading commercial promotions for Mingzhi Bird’s Nest products, and there is no subjective intention to deceive consumers.
“Fake bird’s nest” case has been opened
Manufacturers, platforms, and affiliated companies are all defendants
According to the information of Tianyancha, on March 20, 2022, the Intermediate People’s Court of Zhengzhou City, Henan Province issued an announcement stating that the Henan Provincial Consumers Association will be the plaintiff, and Guangzhou Rongyu Company, Beijing Kuaishou Technology Co., Ltd., Xin Youzhi (Simba), Guangzhou Heyi Company, Zhejiang Tmall Network Co., Ltd., Dazhou Xinyan Biotechnology Co., Ltd., etc. filed a public interest lawsuit. Public reports show that the case has been heard on May 9, 2022.
In the complaint, the Henan Consumers Association requested the four defendants, Kuaishou Company, Guangzhou Heyi Company, Guangzhou Rongyu Company, and Mingzhi Bird’s Nest’s contract manufacturer Dazhou Xinyan Biotechnology Co., Ltd., to jointly assume the responsibilities of refunding one refund and three compensations, and to compensate them. RMB 79,714,156; as for Xin Youzhi and Tmall, they should be jointly and severally liable for the compensation amounts of Guangzhou Heyi and Guangzhou Rongyu respectively.
↑ Court Notice
In addition, the Henan Consumers Association also advocated that Kuaishou should be ordered to permanently suspend Xin Youzhi and all the live broadcast accounts of Guangzhou Heyi Company. Regarding this claim, Xin Xuan believes that he has actively made claims and assumes responsibility. “In the case that the business behavior of platform operators complies with laws and regulations, the judiciary should not interfere with their freedom of operation.”
It is reported that at the scene of the trial, both the prosecution and the defense expressed their willingness to mediate under the auspices of the court. Up to now, the ruling document website and media reports have not been able to query the outcome of the case. The reporter tried to find out about the relevant situation from insiders of Xinxuan, but the other party said it was inconvenient to reply.
It is worth noting that the award issued by the Guangzhou Arbitration Commission on June 30, 2021 has ruled on the responsibilities between Guangzhou Heyi Company and Guangzhou Rongyu Company in this incident.
According to the award, the Guangzhou Arbitration Commission believed that Rongyu Company concealed the composition ratio of the products involved in the case during the performance of the contract, misled Heyi Company, and Heyi Company made misleading publicity behaviors based on Rongyu Company’s misleading. The arbitral tribunal ruled that before December 16, 2020, Rongyu Company should bear 30,355,459 yuan of the refunded compensation from Guangzhou Heyi Company.
However, insiders of Xinxuan Group said that the payment has not been implemented so far. According to the relevant information on the Tianyancha website, on August 19, 2022, the Guangzhou Intermediate People’s Court issued a consumption restriction order. The applicant is Shuyang Heyi Information Technology Co., Ltd., an affiliate of Xinxuan Group, and the person to be executed is Guangzhou Rongyu Trading. Xie Dongsheng, the legal representative of the limited company.
The Red Star News reporter tried to contact Guangzhou Rongyu Company, but the phone number left on the Tianyan check could not be connected, and there was no response to the email.
Lawyer Liu Zhixin, a partner of Guangdong Shenmingdian Law Firm and a senior food professional lawyer, pointed out that if the food sold in the short video live broadcast room violates the “Food Safety Law” and does not meet the food safety standards, it will generally be sold by real-name registered salesmen on the short video platform. The enterprise or the manufacturer of the products involved shall bear the corresponding civil compensation liability and administrative legal liability.
However, if the anchor acts as the spokesperson of the product involved, in the case of causing consumer damage, he needs to bear joint and several liability for civil compensation. In addition, if the anchor recommends or certifies the product that has not been used as the spokesperson of the advertisement, or knows or should have known that the advertisement is false, but still recommends and certifies the product in the advertisement, it may also face the confiscation of illegal income by the market supervision and management department. , and impose administrative legal liability of a fine of not less than one time but not more than twice the amount of illegal gains.
Lawyer Liu Zhixin also introduced to the Red Star News reporter that in accordance with the “Food Safety Law”, “Measures for the Investigation and Punishment of Online Food Safety Illegal Acts” and other regulations, the short video platform should establish the review and registration of online food producers and operators, food safety self-inspection, and food safety violations. and reporting, suspension of platform services for serious violations, handling of food safety complaints and reports, and other systems to supervise unsafe food.
In the event of false propaganda or food safety issues, consumers can claim civil compensation from the seller of the short video live broadcast room or the manufacturer of the product involved.