Since the beginning of this year, the price of gold has risen frequently, and online gold jewelry has also continued to sell well. Recently, the "999 pure gold" sold by multiple e-commerce platforms has been frequently complained by consumers due to suspicion of passing off fake as real and adulterated. Some online stores choose to close their stores and run away to avoid consumers' "after-sales service" because they sell fake gold or products that are short of catties and pounds. After the platform intervened, it even claimed that the merchant's margin was insufficient and could not compensate consumers.
How can consumers who encounter the "gold" trap of online shopping protect their rights and interests?
In a live broadcast room, an anchor is impassionedly introducing gold bracelets, if there are no subtitles, at first glance, most people think that they are introducing forty 999 pure gold bracelets for only 499 yuan. However, the reporter slowed down this passage and listened carefully several times, only to find that there was actually a key information hidden in this passage: 40 alloys.
And the anchor is through the clever combination of language, so that consumers at first glance sound mistaken that the live broadcast room is selling 40 999 pure gold bracelets, only a few orders in stock, the price is favorable, and the opportunity is rare.
Mr. Zhang, who lives in Beijing, was also watching the live broadcast at this time, and the anchor's promotion made him moved, and he saw that this limited-edition bracelet was exactly the style his wife wanted, and the price was cheap, plus the 999 pure gold promised by the merchant, and the fake one paid ten, and there were only three or five orders of inventory to send benefits, Mr. Zhang did not hesitate to rely on the "hand speed" to place an order for his wife to grab one.
Mr. Zhang's wife, Ms. Liu: I was very happy when I saw it, it looked like gold in appearance, color, and feel, and it was heavy. I asked how much it was, he told me 499 yuan 9, I said is it possible, I said gold more than 500 yuan a gram, he said you don't worry, said this is 3 to 5 singles, robbed, and fake one to pay ten, to ensure 999 pure gold, this I believe.
Seeing that his wife was very satisfied, Mr. Zhang was glad that he had picked up the big leak and began to pay attention to this live broadcast room.
Mr. Zhang, a citizen of Beijing: I see that my lover wears a bracelet and the effect is very good, and I bought two 18k gold rings after watching the live broadcast, and they are also very good to wear.
Mr. Zhang's wife Ms. Liu: I don't doubt it, because I think it is impossible to say this if it is fake, and the merchant is also afraid of losing money.
Wearing the gift that her husband bought, Ms. Liu was very happy. But I didn't expect that a few days later, the side of the gold beads on the bracelet was a little black, and at first the couple thought it was dirty and tried various ways to clean it.
At this time, the couple still did not have any doubts about the authenticity of the gold bracelet until an accident happened.
Mr. Zhang's wife, Ms. Liu: Our children are more naughty in the fifth grade, because I am anxious about my homework, I accidentally slapped the table and the ring was broken, and the ring was folded and I looked black, I felt that something was wrong, and the 18k gold ring should be yellow when folded, how can it be black, I doubt that this bracelet is also fake.
The couple took the gold bracelet to a local appraisal center for appraisal, and found that only the small drops of the accessories of the gold bracelet were pure gold, about 0.3 grams, and the beads of the other card 5 were all tested as copper alloys.
The couple looked for a professional to check the product identification certificate provided by the merchant, only to find that there was a hidden article in it.
This is the appraisal certificate made by Ms. Liu at the local testing center, which is written on the main body of the bracelet, the beads are partially tested as "copper alloy products", and the remarks are written "only the beads", which means that the bracelet tested only detects the main body of the beads, and the bead composition is copper alloy.
Looking at the appraisal certificate provided by the merchant in the live broadcast room, the main body of the test is "garnet", the precious metal is detected as "pure gold", and the remarks are written "The pendant is pure gold, and the yellow beads are not detected". In other words, the certificate sent by the merchant is based on the garnet on the bracelet as the main body of detection.
In the field of high-end commodities such as jewelry and gold, it has become a common practice to provide appraisal reports issued by authoritative institutions, which usually need to contain the main content of the identified goods, such as the purity, weight, fineness and other information of the gold. In accordance with relevant laws, regulations and industry standards, sellers shall provide true and accurate product information. However, the product identification certificate provided to Ms. Liu by the merchant obviously did not provide complete product information.
Shi Xianglai, Director of the Laboratory of Zhongshou Inspection (Beijing) Jewelry Testing Center Co., Ltd.: We usually understand that if a single bead appears on the entire metal product, the positioning should be an accessory, and we need to capture all the information of these certificates to prevent merchants from changing concepts.
In the investigation, the reporter also found that there are various types of appraisal certificates for gold jewelry, and it has become a very difficult thing for consumers who buy gold jewelry to identify appraisal certificates. First of all, it is necessary to determine the authenticity of the appraisal agency, and then to see the content of the appraisal clearly.
Ms. Liu, who was misled by the merchant, was very angry and wanted to ask for an explanation, but she couldn't contact the merchant.
In the end, the merchant refused to return the beads on the grounds that the beads were worn and the ring was damaged and broken. He also informed Ms. Liu that during the live broadcast in the live broadcast room, she had already said that "40 pieces are alloys" and that there was no counterfeiting.
Zhu Xiaojuan, associate professor of the Institute of Commercial Law, School of Civil, Commercial and Economic Law, China University of Political Science and Law: What does this behavior, including discourse expression, mean, in this process, the merchant is already doing an evasive action, misleading, and actually inducing. Listen to it many times before you can hear it in that position. Consumers should not be required to become experts, but should be given the protection of consumers' right to be fully informed. Therefore, from the perspective of consumer rights protection, as well as the exemplary role of positive social order and transaction atmosphere.
At present, the local market supervision department has launched an investigation into Ms. Liu's complaint, in order to more effectively safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of consumers, experts reminded that consumers should record the screen in time when shopping in the live broadcast room, take screenshots to retain the content of the merchant's publicity and commitments, and at the same time, when buying gold jewelry, they should carefully check the appraisal certificate to understand the specific information of its pricing method and subsequent replacement.
Peng Xi, Director of the Legal Supervision Department of the Guangdong Provincial Consumer Commission: We must distinguish whether it is gold jewelry or pure gold, how much is the process cost of gold jewelry, and whether it is within the scope of your reasonable needs. Gold trade-in, consumers should check clearly, whether there are restrictions on replacement, it is better to write into the bill. If your rights have been violated, you can file a complaint with a consumer organization, report a complaint to the relevant administrative department, or even go to justice.
According to the reporter's understanding, in 2023, the 12315 platform across the country will receive 12.611 million online shopping complaints and reports, and the growth rate of new e-commerce complaints and reports based on live broadcast e-commerce is significantly higher than that of traditional e-commerce platforms. The problems reported by consumers are mainly focused on the "three nos" products purchased, the inconsistent performance of the goods in hand and the products displayed in the live broadcast room, and the difficulty in returning and exchanging goods. So, what are the chaos of buying gold jewelry online?
Mr. Han, who lives in Chongqing, recently bought a 5.5-gram gold pendant online, and the product introduction pendant is 999 pure gold, with a total price of 3,217 yuan when placing an order, and 3,025 yuan after superimposed discounts, with an average price of 550 yuan per gram, which is much cheaper than the price of more than 600 yuan in offline gold stores at that time. The inspection certificate provided by the store and the promise of 10 for 10 fake made Mr. Han very satisfied with this online purchase.
Soon, Mr. Han wanted to recycle the gold, only to find out that he had been deceived.
Mr. Han, a citizen of Chongqing: At that time, when it was recycled, it burned for more than ten seconds, and black smoke came out, so I didn't dare to burn it, and then put it on the scale and weighed it, and it became that 5.3 grams. I said that I would cut it open and see what was going on inside, and when I opened it, I saw that there was plastic in it, but I didn't expect that there was a fake identification certificate.
The reporter saw in the chat record between Mr. Han and the merchant that Mr. Han questioned the merchant about how the 5.5-gram pendant could be mixed with other objects, and the merchant actually said that the middle was a total of 0.8 grams of shaping glue, which was used to set the shape. The co-authoring of 0.8 grams of setting rubber also allowed the merchant to sell the price of gold, and Mr. Han decided to take judicial measures to protect his legitimate rights and interests.
In the investigation, the reporter found that it is not the blind pursuit of price concessions that it is easy to suffer from the trap of gold consumption. Ms. Huang, who likes to buy gold jewelry every day, in order to prevent being deceived, she always has a principle when buying gold online, that is, she only buys gold jewelry with a gram price higher than the gold market.
Adhering to this principle, Ms. Huang placed an order for four pieces of jewelry from a live broadcast store, spending a total of more than 9,000 yuan before and after. Not long after, Ms. Huang wanted to go to the local gold store to change the style, but when the gold store was testing one of the pendants, an accident happened.
Ms. Huang, a citizen of Beijing: When it burns, it catches fire directly, and then it emits big black smoke. It seems that there is a lot less after burning. Because it was burned for a while, it was not burned again, and if it was burned again, it would definitely be much less.
After the fire, the pendant changed from the original 8.62 grams to 8.36 grams. As the saying goes, "real gold is not afraid of fire", the chemical properties of gold are relatively stable, and it will be hot, red and even deformed when burned with fire, but there will never be smoke and fire, and it will not change because of the gram weight after the fire. The testing staff told reporters that the pendant may be mixed with some other unidentified objects. Ms. Huang didn't expect that there would be problems with the jewelry bought back at such a high price.
At present, due to the lack of merchant deposits, Ms. Huang has only returned the amount of two pieces of jewelry, and the store has been removed from the relevant platform.
The reporter learned that all platforms should have threshold requirements for settled merchants, one of the more important points is the store's deposit, which is an important source of protection for consumers to ensure that in case of problems in the operation of merchants.
However, the reporter's investigation found that some platforms do not require merchants to display store deposits, and on some platforms that have publicized the deposit, many stores selling tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of gold jewelry goods have only a few thousand yuan in deposits.
Lu Laiming, a professor at the Law School of Beijing Technology and Business University: If you ask for a 5,000 yuan deposit in an online store, it is useless. If you want to sell a piece of clothing for 50 yuan, paying 5,000 yuan is enough. At present, its entry threshold is relatively low, and there is competition between platforms, which is indeed a direction that needs to be regulated, which is a relatively large and fundamental measure to fundamentally protect consumers and protect consumer rights and interests.
Zhu Xiaojuan, associate professor of the Institute of Commercial Law, School of Civil, Commercial and Economic Law, China University of Political Science and Law: There must be commercial interests between the platforms, and the platform lowers its own standards for the sake of traffic, for the number of customers settled in the platform more and wider, which is actually a commercial choice. If you can't find the merchant, of course, you will be required to pay in advance. The Civil Code, including the Company Law, says that a company must be sincere and must not have significantly insufficient capital. According to the scope of business, the industry operated, the products handled, and the nature of the services provided, it should be related.
Experts said that the platform lowered the margin standard on its own, and once there was a compensation problem and the margin was insufficient, the platform would also be jointly and severally liable for compensation.
Wang Fushan, deputy secretary-general of the China Electronic Chamber of Commerce: If the deposit you collect is not enough to support the compensation behind, I think the platform may have to bear the responsibility of joint and several compensation, because I am the live broadcast on this platform, I went to buy this thing, how do I know when your deposit is used up, as an ordinary consumer does not know at all, maybe 5000 margin sold 500,000 goods, if there is a problem, we believe that the platform has an unshirkable responsibility.
In the e-commerce ecosystem, platform operators are the core and have the obligation to maintain order within the platform, and the E-Commerce Law and the Measures for the Supervision and Administration of Online Transactions clearly stipulate that platform operators shall establish an inspection and monitoring system for the operators on the platform and the information on goods or services published by them. Article 44 of the Law on the Protection of Consumer Rights and Interests stipulates that if an online trading platform provider clearly knows or should know that a seller or service provider is using its platform to infringe on the legitimate rights and interests of consumers, but fails to take necessary measures, it shall be jointly and severally liable with the seller or service provider in accordance with the law. That is, if the statutory conditions are met, the platform operator is obliged to bear the liability for compensation in advance.
At present, the complaints of the above parties have not been satisfactorily resolved, not to mention the principle of triple compensation mentioned in the "Consumer Rights and Interests Protection Law", and the "fake one pays ten" promised by the merchant in the live broadcast room. The tripartite responsibilities of the platform, the live broadcast room and the anchor must be clarified for live streaming. In this regard, the "Regulations for the Implementation of the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of Consumer Rights and Interests", which will come into effect on July 1 this year, clearly states that if business operators provide goods or services through online live streaming or other means, they shall perform their obligations related to the protection of consumer rights and interests in accordance with the law, and live broadcast marketing platform operators shall establish and improve a consumer rights and interests protection system.
Source: CCTV News