Author|Xie Han
Editor|Chen Qiu
Operations|Chen Xiaoyan
Mirror (ID: DMS-012)
This year's Double 11 promotion, Li Jiaqi's live broadcast room, which has just been labeled "five low", is involved in a "reserve price agreement" and "one of the two" controversy.
On October 24, according to media reports, Jingdong Purchasing and Selling "Chu Sanfeng" posted a circle of friends saying that he suddenly received a lawyer's letter from the brand merchant Hai's. The reason was that the Jingdong price of a certain Hai's oven was lower than the price of LJQ (Li Jiaqi) live broadcast, which violated the so-called "reserve price agreement" they signed with LJQ and had to pay huge liquidated damages. And said that the low price is because the subsidy cost this time is completely paid by JD.com.
According to a number of media reports, a staff member of the Haishi brand said: JD.com forced the price of Li Jiaqi's live broadcast room, and deliberately lowered the price of the product, and repeated multi-party communication was fruitless, resulting in the Haishi brand facing the risk of breach of contract and huge compensation. At present, Jingdong has restricted the background permissions of merchants, basic operations cannot be carried out, and 5% discount is forcibly added to live broadcast items.
The incident quickly fermented, and Haishi issued a statement saying that the company had not signed any "reserve price agreement" with the channel referred to by the Jingdong procurement and sales personnel, which was false information. At the same time, for the controversy between the "reserve price agreement" and "one of the two", the US ONE response is false news.
However, according to the contract between Li Jiaqi's company Mei ONE and the brand owner exposed by the media, Mei ONE proposed relevant restrictions in terms of gift value, promotion strength, the best price range, and the best price guarantee period. In the event of a breach of contract, the brand owner will first refund five times the price difference to the consumer, and second, compensate the US ONE for the liquidated damages of RMB 2 million, and bear all costs and losses incurred due to the refund of the price difference.
It is worth noting that on the same day, the "crazy little Yang brother" who showed that it had 99.99 million + fans on the Douyin platform also joined it, and when he brought goods in the live broadcast room, it was suspected that the inventory was blocked due to the price of the product, resulting in a number of big-name products being forced to be taken off the shelves, and insinuated that Li Jiaqi was responsible.
In this storm full of gunpowder, how did all parties disclose information? And what are the problems behind this?
Each word
Distinct Mirror
It is understood that the product that caused the controversy is the third generation of Hai's C40 electric oven. Another mirror searched for the product in the Hai's kitchen appliance Jingdong self-operated flagship store, and it was shown that it was not in stock, but you can see that the original price of the product at 699 yuan is expected to be 349.5 yuan. Subsequently, the other mirror asked the customer service whether the oven was removed from the shelves and whether there would be a discount in the future, and the other party responded that "the product information has not been notified for the time being" and "it is not clear".
Compared with other platforms, search for the product in the official flagship store of Pinduoduo Hauswirt, the price is 999 yuan when purchased separately, and the price of free purchase after the coupon is 699 yuan, the store's customer service said that it can apply for a 20 yuan discount for consumers, and the final price can reach 679 yuan. If you participate in the store's ingredient subsidy activities, you can also reduce another 20 yuan, that is, 659 yuan; According to the official flagship store of Tmall Hauswirt, the discount for this product is 245 yuan, and the coupon is 744 yuan. The store's customer service said that the price of the Double 11 promotion is not higher than 669 yuan, and if you are in a hurry to buy, you can also apply in advance to enjoy the price.
On October 24, Li Jiaqi Austin's official WeChat account released a preview information for the super tide power festival on October 26, which showed that the third-generation C40 electric oven will be launched, but only showed that there are two colors to choose from, and the specific price has not been announced.
For the "reserve price agreement" incident triggered by the lowest price, Hai's said in a statement that in order to ensure the rights and interests of consumers, the lowest sales price of the oven will be brought together throughout the network according to the marketing rhythm of each platform during Double 11. However, the JD procurement and sales did not negotiate with the brand, unilaterally lowered the price of the product without authorization, and still refused after the brand owner clearly expressed its disagreement.
Haishi also pointed out that the ovens sold at low prices are not subsidized by the platform as Jingdong said, and the loss of each oven is borne by the Haishi brand. After the communication failed, the Hai's brand could only go through legal means.
Subsequently, the US ONE also responded that it was false news, and the contract signed between Li Jiaqi and the brand did not involve the "lowest price on the whole network" and "one of the two" binding clauses, and the pricing power of the live broadcast room products lies with the brand.
However, according to media reports, a US ONE live broadcast promotion service contract shows that within the guarantee period, Party A guarantees that the value of the promotion object's gift provided by the expert under all promotion services agreed by both parties under the framework of this contract is the highest value under the same conditions within the guarantee period during the guarantee period;
During the guarantee period, Party A guarantees that the promotion provided by Party A under all promotional services agreed by both parties under the framework of this contract is the maximum strength under the same conditions within the guarantee period within the guarantee period.
In terms of liability for breach of contract, if a breach occurs, the brand owner must first refund the five times the price difference to the consumer, and secondly, compensate the US ONE for the liquidated damages of RMB 2 million, and bear all costs and losses incurred due to the refund of the difference.
Among them, in the special guarantee clause, the scope of the best price is Taoji platform (including but not limited to Taobao/Tmall stores, anchor live broadcast and other Taojie content channels), other e-commerce platforms and offline channels. The "Best Price Guarantee Period" is 60 days before and after the actual date of the live promotion service (121 days in total);
The Best Price Guarantee Period is 60 days (121 days in total) before and after the actual date of occurrence of the live promotion service for a promotion target; During the guarantee period, Party A guarantees that the final transaction price of the promotion object within the corresponding planned sales volume under all the promotion services of the designated influencer shall be the lowest price within the guarantee period within the guarantee period.
There is a lot of controversy
Distinct Mirror
On October 19, the United States ONE also held a media communication meeting on "Li Jiaqi Super Double 11" with the theme of "Accompanying Things and Walking Together at Good Prices", and set the theme of this year's promotion as "Low, Low, Low Low, Double 11 Look at Li Jiaqi First." At the event, VP also specifically described five levels of low prices. Mei ONE also said that it will focus on providing consumers with good prices and providing full-link services, and collaborating with brands to break the circle.
According to data from Taotian Group, in the 4 hours on the first day of Double 11, the transaction volume of Li Jiaqi, Bee Surprise Club, Shiitake Mushroom is Coming, Lie'er Baby, Chen Jie Kiki, Jiuxian Liangge, Azhuo Tavern, Oriental Selection, All Girls' Wardrobes, Lin Yilun, Hu Ke, FILA Official Flagship Store and other head live broadcast rooms exceeded 100 million first.
Hua Xizi also appeared again in Li Jiaqi's live broadcast room, from 8 pm to 10 pm on October 24, the highest pre-sale volume of Hua Xizi's products was 70,000 pieces, but compared with the first day of Double 11 last year, it is reported that at that time, Hua Xizi's products sold more than 200,000 pieces within one hour of broadcasting. In the live broadcast room, Li Jiaqi himself and Hua Xizi's eyebrow pencil products did not appear. There is also a voice in the industry that Li Jiaqi himself may also weaken the "binding relationship" with the brand.
But Li Jiaqi, who has recently dominated the hot search list, is not because of the low price of good things.
In addition to the "reserve price agreement" incident, on October 24, "Crazy Little Yang Ge", which showed that it had 99.99 million + fans on the Douyin platform, said that when bringing products in the live broadcast room, it was suspected that the inventory was blocked due to product price breakdown, resulting in a number of big-name products being forced to be taken off the shelves. Subsequently, #DayangBrother angrily accused Li Jiaqi of holding the merchant #rushed to the top of the hot search list.
In the live broadcast room of "Crazy Little Yang Brother", the anchor said, "You want a big name that is all locked by him, all by that, all the price he set." He can do a platform alone. ”
An industry insider told another mirror, "It really caused other live broadcast rooms to not be sold, and they could wait until he (Li Jiaqi) sold out." The circle is also more accustomed to this matter. ”
Ju Qinyi, a partner and lawyer at Beijing Weiheng (Shanghai) Law Firm, told Another Mirror that there are currently different opinions on the incident, and the facts need to be further observed. From the information disclosed at the moment, the dispute between Hai's and JD.com mainly depends on the agreement between the two parties, especially the agreement on pricing power in the agreement, if Hai's does not give the JD.com platform pricing power in the cooperation agreement, and the JD.com platform changes the price without authorization in order to carry out promotional activities, it should bear the liability for breach of contract.
As for the issue of "Li Jiaqi's live broadcast room", Ju Qinyi said that if there is a so-called "reserve price agreement" between it and the brand owner or there is a clause such as "guaranteed lowest price" in the cooperation agreement, then it involves anti-monopoly issues.
Once the "Li Jiaqi Live Room" meets the standard of "market dominance" determined by the Anti-Monopoly Law Enforcement Agency of the State Council, then their behavior of "limiting the minimum price of reselling goods to a third party" by signing an agreement is a clearly illegal act, and should be investigated and dealt with by the relevant law enforcement agency in the future.