Many supply chains at the end of the deadline have no qualification guarantee, making them a "paradise for fakes"
Author/IT Times reporter Sun Yan
Editor/Hao Junhui Sun Yan
Every year on March 15th, "IT Times" will pay attention to the incidents and phenomena that infringe on consumer rights as new applications and new services emerge in the field of Internet consumption. This year, these "fake" products will continue to be combated, with pirated books rampant, expired skin care products becoming a "fake paradise", "fake" Musk, etc. From now on, "IT Times" will launch a special report on "March 15 Action Week".
La Mer classic face cream 60mL is available for RMB 88, Lancôme Pure Face Cream 60mL is available for RMB 78, Clarins Double Extract Essence 50mL is available for RMB 78, and YSL black leather air cushion is available for RMB 6 9.9 yuan, Chanel Camellia Facial Cleanser 150mL is priced at 69.9 yuan… According to Xiaohongshu, some "end-of-life" skin care products stores are selling big-name skin care products at a discount of 10% off the genuine counter price.
They appear at very attractive prices, which makes consumers who usually flock to big-name skin care products get excited and buy them with the mentality of giving them a try, thus embarking on a tortuous road to rights protection.
Many consumers told reporters from IT Times about similar experiences: After receiving "extended" skin care products, they found that they were far from the original products. They suspected they were fakes, but the sellers refused to return them for refunds on the grounds that they would not return them after opening them. If consumers want to prove that the goods are fake, they can only provide test reports issued by CMA certified appraisal institutions recognized by the seller, and these institutions rarely provide testing services to individuals. What’s more, once consumers leave the Xiaohongshu platform and conduct transactions on WeChat, Weidian, Youzan and other platforms, the road to rights protection will be even more difficult.
Xiaohongshu stores suddenly closed, and sellers suddenly blocked consumers on WeChat. Such outrageous consumption experiences actually appeared on Xiaohongshu, which was "running wildly" on the road to e-commerce. These cases of consumer rights protection not only sound the alarm for Xiaohongshu’s e-commerce governance, but also lead to the impending “sewer” channel where fake goods are rampant.
Consumer complaints about "discounted big-name skin care products" are ridiculously fake
Recently, many consumers complained to the IT Times that the skin care products purchased at Xiaohongshu stores were suspected to be fake.
"The price is ridiculously low, and genuine products are not even discounted. Many sellers said they still have a shelf life of about a year. They bought it with the mentality of giving it a try, but it was also ridiculously fake. The appearance was too different from the genuine products I used at the counter. The anti-counterfeiting code that was scanned was the seller's own website, not the official customs traceability code." Many complaining consumers described similar experiences to reporters from the "IT Times".
In addition to buying suspected fake "immediate" big-name beauty and skin care products in Xiaohongshu stores, more impending merchants use Xiaohongshu notes to guide consumers to WeChat and make transactions through Weidian, Youzan and other platforms. If subsequent disputes such as counterfeit goods are encountered, it will be more difficult to safeguard rights.
"After receiving the goods, I found that there were obvious differences between the authentic products I used. After appraising them on the Dewu App, both products showed that the appearance did not match the characteristics of the authentic products, so they were fake." Ms. Jiang said that the seller did not recognize the appraisal of Dewu and asked Ms. Jiang to provide a report from a formal appraisal agency. After that, she stopped responding to any information.
After Ms. Jiang complained to 12315, Youzan platform intervened, but also stated that it could not contact the merchant and has not yet been able to return the product or refund it.
Coincidentally, Ms. Xiang was also redirected to WeChat by "Shape Shaping Beauty" on Xiaohongshu. She bought two bottles of Chanel perfume for 600 yuan, but the transaction platform was "Sushi Global Shopping" on the Weidian platform.
After receiving the goods, Ms. Xiang scanned the customs traceability code on the outer packaging and jumped to the "commodity traceability system". However, it only showed that the product was authentic, but there was no production date, manufacturer, product number, logistics information, etc. The result of the query at the National Commodity Traceability Verification Center was "the anti-counterfeiting code does not exist."
Ms. Xiang suspected that the product traceability system was not formal, so she uploaded the product appearance to Dewu App for identification, and the result was false. However, the seller did not recognize the appraisal result. Similar to the reply to Ms. Jiang, she asked Ms. Xiang to provide the appraisal result with the official seal of the property, or a test report issued by China Inspection and Certification (Group) Co., Ltd.
After one month, Ms. Xiang complained to the Haikou Local Market Supervision and Administration Bureau and other parties, and Weidian officials intervened, and she was finally able to return the product for a refund.
Currently, "Sushi Beauty" on Youzan still displays products for sale, while "Sushi Global Shopping" on Weidian only displays price links one by one. Customer service said that after placing an order, a customized price link will be sent for payment.
On the Sina Black Cat complaint platform, there were more than 3,200 complaints about Xiaohongshu’s suspected fake products, among which skin care products on expiration date were one of the hardest hit areas.
Many complaining consumers told the "IT Times" reporter that soon after the after-sales rights protection, they found that the store had been closed, and they could only find Xiaohongshu's official customer service to handle the returns and refunds.
Among the many consumers interviewed by the reporter of "IT Times", return and refund is the best result, and no one can get compensation of three for one fake product. First, these skin care products stores that have entered Xiaohongshu frequently change their "vests". After the stores suddenly close, consumers cannot find the merchants; second, there is no way to divert traffic to off-site transactions to complain; third, consumers do not know how to identify fakes and protect their rights; fourth, appraisal institutions with CMA (China Metrology Certification) rarely provide testing services to individuals.
Reporter investigates: many supply chains on deadline are unqualified
There are a large number of "last-minute" beauty and skin care products stores on Xiaohongshu, with some stores selling as much as 54,000 items. Most of their products are popular products such as La Mer Essence Water, Black Bandage Cream, YSL Liquid Foundation, and Clarins Double Extract.
150 ml of La Mer LA MER Essence Water is priced at 1,219 yuan at Tmall LA MER’s official flagship store, and 589.9 yuan at Tmall International’s self-operated Miaoyan Club. In Xiaohongshu’s stores that sell “immediate” skin care products, the price is as low as 88 yuan, which is less than 10% off the genuine price.
The seller's words are exactly the same. They are cheap because they are about to expire or the outer packaging is damaged. Moreover, all beauty and skin care products that are about to expire have a shelf life of one to one and a half years. Non-genuine products can be returned and have traceability codes.
Most of the store IPs and shipping addresses are concentrated in Guangdong Province, but their business licenses are scattered in various provinces and cities across the country. A search on Tianyancha shows that most of these merchants are sole proprietorships or individual industrial and commercial households.
"IT Times" reporters consulted a number of supply chain companies for skin care products that were recruiting agents on Xiaohongshu. The prices varied and the supply of goods was mixed. Some said they were from duty-free shops, some said they were purchased by buyers, and some said they were products removed from the shelves.
But one thing they have in common is that they are unable to provide any genuine qualifications.
The cooperation models between each company and its agents are different, but they all do not require any qualifications, procedures, or contracts. A supply chain company said that it needs to pay an agency fee of 1,380 yuan first in order to enjoy 30 to 20% off the retail price and agent training. There is no need to review qualifications or sign a contract, and you can become an agent by directly transferring money. When the reporter asked if there was any genuine authorization, the other party asked: "Where can these be found in the withdrawn products?"
Another salesperson named "Peri Global Hainan Duty Free Store" said that its products are purchased and shipped from Hainan Duty Free Store by "sweeping groups". They claim that they can take pictures to see the purchase receipt. In addition, there is no proof of authenticity. They support dropshipping and can also stock up on goods, with a 15% discount for purchases of more than 5,000 yuan and a 20% discount for purchases of more than 10,000 yuan.
Judging from the price list sent by the seller, there is a big price difference. Those without outer packaging boxes are cheaper than those with outer packaging boxes. Taking 150 ml of La Mer essence water as an example, the purchasing price ranges from 368 yuan to 470 yuan.
Many supply chain companies have said: "You can set the price yourself, and how much you can sell depends on your own ability."
Industry insiders decrypt the impending "sewer" into a "paradise for fakes"
"When you look at the price, you can tell that it is a fake, and it is a low-quality fake, because you can't even buy a genuine empty bottle at this price, let alone expired skin care products. Looking at the stores, they are full of hot-selling products, and these products are unlikely to produce a large number of expired products." Xue Zhen (pseudonym) once worked for a large domestic licensed duty-free group. He has been working in a cosmetics and skin care product agency operation company for more than ten years. He told the "IT Times" reporter that the brand's secondary distributors will send unsalable products to the "sewer" channel, but the supply of skin care products and cosmetics that are due is unstable. Most of them are not hot-selling products, but some categories that do not sell well.
On the supply side, in order not to damage the distribution price system of big brands, the "sewer" is a mysterious existence whose source cannot be traced, and it is natural that it does not have genuine authorization qualifications. On the sales side, because it is difficult for consumers to judge whether the price of expired products is reasonable, expired products have become a "fake paradise."
In 2023, the offline discount supermarket Haozaibao, which specializes in food, skin care products, and daily necessities, was caught in a "counterfeiting scandal", involving the former Shiseido brands such as Keyouran, Silk Beiqi, and Fino Fenon. According to The Paper, this case was suspected of selling goods with counterfeit registered trademarks, involving a total amount of more than 17 million yuan. After receiving complaints from consumers, the Shanghai Pudong police conducted an investigation and uncovered more than 150,000 bottles of counterfeit well-known brand shampoo, shower gel, and sunscreen. Haotesale stores were one of the channels through which these counterfeit products were sold. The Shanghai police arrested six criminal suspects in Guangzhou and Chengdu respectively, and restored the counterfeit sales chain: the suspects purchased raw materials such as empty bottles, labels, and pastes of counterfeit brand shampoo, shower gel, and sunscreen, outsourced them to factories to make finished products, and then found people to forge certificates of authorization and qualifications from the brand owners. Finally, they distributed the counterfeit products to major supermarket stores with baits such as low-price genuine products and direct sales from manufacturers.
Xue Zhen told the "IT Times" reporter that some fake skin care products are from overseas sources transited from Hong Kong, and the cheaper ones are filled in empty bottles recycled in the mainland.
Open the second-hand trading platform, and there are people who specialize in recycling empty bottles of expensive skin care products at high prices. The recycling price of empty bottles of 150 ml La Mer essence water is generally about 50 yuan. Generally, buyers will ask to take pictures of the bottle body and bottom. The specific purchase price depends on the degree of wear of the bottle body, the clarity of the font printed on the bottom of the bottle, the production date, etc.
Most of the empty bottles recycled will flow into the counterfeit manufacturing and sales industry chain, which has become an "open secret."
"Who cares about the production date and the clarity of the bottom of the bottle when setting up a display cabinet?" Ren Ming (pseudonym), who has been engaged in cross-border e-commerce for many years, mentioned that the bottom of the bottles of these high-end skin care products is usually printed with batch numbers composed of numbers or letters, representing the country of origin, production date, batch and other information, which is one of the key basis for identifying authenticity.
The lawyer suggested that Xiaohongshu, who was running wild, should take up e-commerce courses
Xiaohongshu provides a channel for individuals to open stores. No business license is required, only an ID card is required. However, individual stores cannot be opened in categories such as 3C digital (parts), household appliances, furniture and building materials, jewelry and jade, maternal and infant products (parts).
A reporter from "IT Times" tried to open a personal store and chose the type of "sporadic small-amount transaction activities". The restriction was that the cumulative annual transaction volume did not exceed 100,000 yuan. The review was passed in almost seconds, and no deposit was required throughout the process. But before putting big-name beauty-related products on the shelves, the platform prompts "Please upload brand qualifications."
Many consumers have questioned whether the notes on "immediately released" skin care products that attract traffic on Xiaohongshu are marked with the word "sponsored" and whether they involve false propaganda, and the platform should review them.
"IT Times" reporters also observed that Xiaohongshu is filled with a large number of notes on the promotion of "appropriate" skin care products. "A girl makes 850,000 yuan in half a year by doing impending beauty makeup alone." "In 2024, she will become a rich woman by relying on impending beauty." "The truth about skin care products for ladies, sisters no longer need to find agents to buy them." Many of them are marked with "sponsored" marks for distributing products.
Regarding the determination of the responsibility of the platform, Dong Yizhi, a lawyer at Shanghai Zhengce Law Firm, believes that three key dimensions should be grasped: the platform needs to fulfill the duty of care of a "good manager" and should adopt a dual mechanism of "formal review + substantive spot check" for merchant qualifications. The current platform's abuse of the "sporadic small-amount transaction" exemption system has been suspected of violating Article 8 of the "Online Transaction Supervision and Management Measures" ; According to the Supreme Court Internet Typical Case Judgment Rules, the platform can be presumed to have known the following situations, such as similar stores being repeatedly complained about selling counterfeit products, product prices significantly lower than the reasonable range of the market, using off-site transactions to evade supervision, etc.; According to Article 5 of the "Judicial Interpretation of Online Consumer Disputes", if consumers cause damage due to the platform's failure to fulfill its qualification review obligations, they can claim that the platform pays compensation in advance.
In addition to the loss of trust in the platform, the high cost of rights protection is a common sentiment among all consumers who complain. Dong Yizhi believes that what consumers can do is to keep a complete chain of evidence, save screenshots of Xiaohongshu notes, WeChat chat records, transfer vouchers, etc., and also take pictures of unopened product traceability codes, batch numbers, packaging defects, etc., choose an appraisal agency with CMA certification (such as CCIC) for testing, as well as complaint handling records, platform feedback screenshots, etc.
Dong Yizhi suggested that at the platform level, the Xiaohongshu platform can establish a professional review team for beauty products, set early warnings for abnormal price fluctuations, and take anti-counterfeiting measures such as removing affiliated companies of merchants selling counterfeit goods; at the ecological governance level, the platform can be connected to the official brand traceability system for brand co-governance; at the institutional construction level, the margin system can be innovated, refer to cross-border e-commerce practices, and require merchants of special categories to pay consumer protection funds.
Xiaohongshu, which is running wildly on the road of e-commerce, has given many ordinary people a new way to grow into bloggers or e-commerce entrepreneurs. However, in transforming from a social grass-growing platform to a lifestyle e-commerce platform, Xiaohongshu still has a lot of homework to make up. It should balance traffic dividends and business ethics, balance technological innovation and system construction, and balance platform autonomy and pluralistic co-governance.
Typesetting/ Ji Jiaying
Picture/Interviewee IT Times from Xiaohongshu Weidian Xianyu
Source/"IT Times" public account vittimes
