The Baicao-flavored Nut Gift Box Has Been Questioned Because It Contains A Large Number Of Drinks And Snacks. Who Will Protect The Rights Of Consumers?

China News Service, Beijing, January 30 (Reporter Zuo Yuqing) A "nut gift box" with a net weight of 958 grams is advertised, but in fact it only has 33 grams of real nuts, and the rest is 660 grams of drinks and some biscuit snacks. Recently, Baicao’s “Nut Gift Box” has caused controversy.

Faced with doubts, Baicaowei blamed the dealers. According to media reports, Baicaowei claimed that the gift boxes involved were assembled by the dealers themselves and that the official store had never sold the product. It had instructed dealers to remove all the gift boxes from the shelves.

However, this response is unconvincing. China News Network noticed that although Baicaowei tried to "pass the blame" to distributors, similar gift boxes were still on sale in its official flagship store.

For example, a "nut snack gift box" weighing 1,260 grams in its official flagship store is marked in large characters on the product sales page with "10 large items weighing 2.5 pounds", and the promotional pictures are all nuts. However, nearly 70% of the weight of the gift box actually comes from "nut plant protein drink", jelly refreshing and gray dates, which obviously contradicts Baicaowei's explanation of "only a dealer behavior".

Yan Bing, senior partner of Times Jiuhe Law Firm, pointed out that the graphic introduction of such "nut gift boxes" is enough to make most consumers mistakenly believe that the gift boxes contain real nuts, which has a substantial impact on consumers' purchasing behavior. Therefore, this behavior violates consumers' right to know the truth and is suspected of fraud. Consumers can claim "refund one and compensate three".

As a brand owner, Baicaowei has unshirkable publicity, review and quality supervision responsibilities for both directly operated stores and authorized distribution channels. Denying the "official" nature of the "Nut Gift Box" involved and simply blaming the problem on the channel is not only difficult to convince the public, but also exposes loopholes in its internal control, which is not conducive to maintaining consumer trust.

What's more, they only removed the gift boxes involved from the shelves, focusing the verification and rectification on the omni-channel brand authorization logo, but did not modify the promotional images and logos that may mislead consumers. Similar gift boxes in the official flagship store are still being sold normally, which is difficult to reflect the sincerity of Baicaowei's rectification.

Using beautiful pictures and vague labels to mislead consumers is a long-standing "routine" in the current consumer market. Merchants often highlight "high value" and "sufficient quantity" visually and textually, but they "secretly make a fuss" about the physical composition. This type of approach may increase sales in the short term, but in the long run, it seriously overdrafts consumers' trust in the brand.

The evergreen brand comes from integrity. Baicaowei should not use dealers as a "shield", but should truly recognize the problem, comprehensively review the authenticity and transparency of product promotion, clearly identify the actual content of various products in the gift box, so that consumers can clearly understand the purchase. Only in this way can we truly safeguard the trust and future of the market. (over)