Recently, a blogger in Jinan "Call Me Third Sister" released a "pit avoidance video" of vegetable small green tofu deterioration, which attracted attention, and netizens in the comment area had different opinions. In this regard, the New Yellow River reporter contacted and interviewed both sides of the incident and visited the stores involved.
On June 30, Ms. Zhang, the party involved in "Call Me Third Sister", told the New Yellow River reporter that on June 6, she took the elderly and children to dine at Cai Xiaoqing Xinpai Malatang (Impression Jinan Store), and the tofu in Malatang did deteriorate, but it was not solved with the store face-to-face.
On this matter, the reporter visited the store involved, and Mr. Zhang, the person in charge of Cai Xiaoqing's new Malatang (Impression Jinan store), told the reporter that the dishes in the store are new from the staff in real time, and there will be no deterioration of the dishes. Mr. Zhang said that after seeing the video, he immediately learned about the situation from the clerk on duty that day, and at the same time called up the monitoring at the time of the incident, and there was no abnormality when the party was eating, and only after leaving the store did he release a video of food deterioration and pit avoidance, and there were no other customers complaining about the deterioration of the dishes that day. At present, it has been more than three weeks since the release of the video involved, and the two parties insist on their own words, the key surveillance video of the store is missing, and the truth is difficult to restore. On July 1, the New Yellow River reporter interviewed a number of lawyers on this matter for professional analysis.
"Group Buying Expert" posted a video with a bad review of the business, which caused heated discussions among netizensThe reporter found that the "Call Me Third Sister" account has 11,000 followers on the Toutiao platform and 17,000 fans on the Douyin platform, and as of press time, its platform has released 1,032 videos, most of which are brand promotion videos.
On June 6, the above-mentioned account posted a video on Toutiao and Douyin platforms about "Avoiding Pit Dishes Xiaoqing" Malatang, which mentioned that the dishes were not fresh. Netizens in the comment area below the video involved have different opinions, some netizens support consumers to speak out and defend their rights, and some netizens question that the blogger involves commercial interests and deliberately "smears" businesses. In this regard, the New Yellow River reporter also contacted and interviewed the parties involved in the incident.
"On the day of the incident, about 8 o'clock in the evening, because the child did not eat, after entering the store, I ordered some light dishes for the child, including fresh tofu and Japanese tofu, and at the end of the meal, I felt that the tofu was sour, and immediately vomited into the trash can next to it." The client, Ms. Zhang, told reporters that she didn't pay much attention to it at the time, and her mother casually said to the clerk that "tofu is sour".
Ms. Zhang told reporters that she did not solve it with the merchant in person after discovering that the dishes had deteriorated, and soon after leaving the store, the child vomited, so she took a video and posted it to her account. "The original intention was to let everyone avoid this store, because I am also a group buying expert, so I feel that there are some things that should be said, and I should still express them, so I made a video." Ms. Zhang said.
Ms. Zhang said that she did not expect that this video would suddenly ferment, and with a certain popularity, the follow-up merchants did not contact her. "I just saw the merchant's reply comments, they can deal with it as they want, if it's a normal customer, can't he make his own remarks if he eats something fresh outside?" Ms. Zhang said.
In addition, the reporter found in the video comment area that the official account of Cai Xiaoqing Malatang replied to the author: "We have taken measures to investigate physical stores, provide consumers with a healthy, clean and hygienic consumer experience, protect the rights and interests of consumers, and also take legal measures to maintain the brand image."
Subsequently, the reporter also visited the store involved, at about seven o'clock in the evening, at the peak of dinner, Cai Xiaoqing Xinpai Malatang (Impression Jinan Store) has many customers eating, the New Yellow River reporter saw on the spot, the store seats are basically full, and there are many customers in the dining area to choose ingredients.
The ingredients in the dining area are placed in the containers, which are labeled with the slogan "Fresh and direct supply every day, all vegetables are not overnight". Mr. Zhang told reporters that on the second day of the incident (June 7), the clerk found the relevant video on the Internet, and then called up the store surveillance and learned about the relevant situation from the clerk that day.
"When I checked the store surveillance the next day, I didn't find anything abnormal, and the person concerned brought the elderly and children to eat together, there were few people in the store during that time, and the clerk was particularly impressed, and the clerk greeted them when they left the store." Mr. Zhang told reporters that the party released a video of food deterioration and pit avoidance after leaving the store, and did not receive complaints from other customers about the deterioration of dishes that day. The reporter randomly interviewed several customers who left the store after dining, and did not reflect that there were problems with the ingredients in the store.
"The tofu was sour, and I didn't communicate positively with the store, I left after eating, and I ate quite clean, and if there was a problem with the dishes, I didn't reflect it in the store, and I sent a video when I went out to say that it was spoiled." Mr. Zhang said that he did not understand the customer's behavior.
According to Mr. Zhang, the impression Jinan store is a franchise store of Cai Xiaoqing's new school of Malatang, and the main slogan of the store is "do not cook overnight dishes", and the store is a transparent kitchen, and there is also real-time monitoring. "The surveillance is only kept for a week, and we did call up the surveillance after the incident and check the situation, but we didn't think to keep a copy. At the moment, the surveillance at the time of the incident is no longer visible. Mr. Zhang said that the head office recently asked him about the situation, only to find that the surveillance video had expired, and now the company has intervened, and the multimedia department will complain to the platform and ask the other party to remove the video.
Tianyancha shows that Jinan Cai Xiaoqing Catering Service Co., Ltd. was established in 2023 and is located in Jinan, Shandong, which is an enterprise mainly engaged in business services. On July 1, the reporter also contacted Ms. Liu, the person in charge of Jinan Cai Xiaoqing Catering Service Co., Ltd., Ms. Liu told reporters that after monitoring the relevant public opinion, she immediately learned about the situation from the store involved in the facts, and the company has complained to the platform and asked the other party to remove the video.
"If the consumer vomits after eating, the other party can provide corresponding proof, and the company will actively deal with it, and publish the 'rumor' video without any evidence, and we reasonably suspect that the person concerned deliberately smeared our brand." Ms. Liu told reporters that the video has had a certain impact on brand investment, and the company is currently collecting evidence, which will be resolved through legal means in the future.
The parties insist on their own words, the key surveillance video is missing, and the truth is difficult to restore. Is it advisable for self-media account bloggers to shoot and post such videos? On July 1, the New Yellow River reporter interviewed a number of lawyers about the matter.
Lawyer Lan Tianbin, a senior partner of Jiangsu Fade Dongheng Law Firm, said that if the video content shot by the self-media blogger is true, the party has the right to shoot it, and also has the right to expose it to the outside world in a realistic manner. However, if the content is distorted, the self-media blogger is suspected of infringing on the reputation right of the merchant, resulting in a decrease in the social evaluation of the merchant, which in turn affects its economic interests. The merchant may request that the infringement be stopped, the impact eliminated, the reputation restored, and an apology may be made.
Jin Xiaodong, a lawyer at Shandong Quanze Law Firm, believes that local bloggers or store explorers are engaged in professional work, so they have a certain fan base and communication scope, which has a certain impact on consumers. Therefore, the content published by influencer bloggers should be objective and authentic, so that consumers can be correctly guided.
Tan Mintao, a lawyer at Beijing Zhongwen (Xi'an) Law Firm, believes that self-media bloggers enjoy the normal right of evaluation as consumers, but the right to evaluate needs to be based on facts, judging from the blogger's public information, he believes that the merchant's dishes are not fresh, and that Japanese tofu is stinky and tofu is sour, which has already involved whether there is a problem with the food safety of the merchant, if there is indeed a problem, the blogger can choose to negotiate with the merchant to deal with it, and can also choose to report to the food and drug supervision and administration department. "Consumers can save evidence to check whether the food is safe, and if the blogger only accuses the merchant of having a problem with the food, but does not have the corresponding evidence to keep, if the accusation is ultimately found to be untrue, the blogger is likely to infringe on the credibility of the business." Tan Mintao said that this also reminds self-media bloggers that in the face of food safety problems, it is best to keep the corresponding evidence materials in order to better protect their rights.
Tan Mintao believes that therefore, consumers should evaluate objectively and rationally, and recommend honestly and trustworthy, if malicious bad reviews cause serious damage to the reputation of the business, they may bear the corresponding civil tort liability. In accordance with article 8 of the "Provisions of the Supreme People's Court on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Law in the Trial of Civil Disputes Involving the Use of Information Networks to Infringe on Personal Rights and Interests", the people's courts shall support the application of network users or network service providers where they employ means such as defamation or slander to harm the public's trust in business entities and reduce the social evaluation of their products or services, and the business entities request that network users or network service providers bear tort liability. As a result, the infringing store can apply for cessation of infringement, removal of obstacles, elimination of impact, restoration of reputation, and financial compensation.
At the same time, lawyer Lan Tianbin also believes that in case of such disputes, consumers can negotiate with the merchant first, or complain to the relevant administrative department, and at the same time can disclose it to the public under the condition of conclusive evidence, so as to warn the merchant to improve the level of food safety.
Reporter: Han Mingxia Photographer: Han Mingxia Proofreader: Gao Xin Editor: Liu Meimei