Case Description

Xiaojia purchased ten Yangcheng Lake hairy crabs in the live broadcast room of the A shopping platform. Upon receipt, she suspected that she had purchased a fake product, so she left a message to the seller, but no one replied. However, Xiaojia contacted Company B, which registered the account through the platform, and Company B said that she had already transferred the account to Mr. C, but she had not had time to go through the platform renaming procedures. Xiaojia contacted Mr. C again, and Mr. C claimed that selling the goods was the behavior of Mr. D, the anchor. Mr. D should be responsible for the false promotion of Mr. D. Mr. D claimed that he was only selling hairy crabs on behalf of Company E, which should bear the responsibility. Xiaojia doesn't know what to do.

Lawyer Analysis

In recent years, online live streaming sales as a new sales model is developing rapidly. However, due to the variety of forms of live streaming sales, consumers often cannot clearly identify the actual sales subject, and in the event of quality problems, they often do not know which party to seek to protect their rights. China's relevant laws and regulations have made relevant provisions on this.

1、 Subjects involved in live streaming marketing:

The following subjects are often involved in live streaming marketing:

1. Operators of live streaming marketing platforms (i.e., live streaming platforms) generally refer to various platforms that offer live streaming shopping. For example, the live broadcast platforms in Taobao, Tmall and Tiktok.

2. Platform operators (i.e., store merchants) generally refer to merchants that open stores within the platform to sell goods. That is, businesses that register stores on Taobao, Tmall, Tiktok and other platforms.

3. The operator of a live broadcast room (i.e., the main body that opens a live broadcast room) generally refers to the main body that opens a live broadcast room and engages in live broadcast sales. The main body of this part is relatively complex, and it may be a live broadcast room directly opened by the operators in the aforementioned platform, that is, the store merchants themselves have opened a live broadcast room and become the operators of the live broadcast room to sell their own products. There are also some entities that specifically open live streaming rooms to sell and promote products on behalf of others (other stores and businesses).

4. Live streaming marketing personnel (i.e., the anchor team) refer to live streaming sales personnel. It is also our common marketing personnel such as anchors.

2、 The subject responsible for the dispute:

1. Operators in the platform open live streaming rooms to sell their own products in the store. For example, we often see a live broadcast room opened by an official flagship store selling goods in the store. At this time, the operator in the platform and the operator in the live broadcast room are the same entity, so it is sufficient to directly request responsibility from them. It should be noted that if the anchor is a staff member of an operator on the platform, any false advertising or other damage caused to consumers during live streaming will be considered a professional act, and the operator on the platform will be liable for compensation. Of course, some anchors themselves are the platform operators of registered stores, and in this case, it is naturally the anchor (platform operator) who bears the responsibility.

2. When the operator of the live broadcast room and the seller of goods are not the same subject. That is, entities other than the actual seller of the product have opened a live streaming room to specifically sell or promote the products of various businesses. In this case, the operator of the live broadcast room should indicate that he is not a seller and indicate the actual seller in a manner sufficient to enable consumers to distinguish. If the live room operator cannot prove that they have made the aforementioned labeling, consumers can claim that the live room operator is responsible. Of course, in practice, if the live room operator can prove that he has fulfilled the obligations listed in the preceding paragraph, the court will also make a specific analysis based on factors such as the appearance of the transaction, the agreement between the live room operator and the operator, the cooperation mode with the operator, the transaction process, and consumer perception.

3. The online live streaming marketing platform operates live streaming on its own. Some platforms also sell their proprietary products through live streaming. In this case, due to the fact that the platform itself is also a seller of proprietary goods and the operator of the live streaming room, the platform operator will be responsible for any quality issues that occur.

4. The online store is transferred to another person after registration. If an operator on the platform registers an online store and transfers the online account and store to another operator through agreement or other means, but fails to make changes to the relevant business entity information public in accordance with the law, and the actual operator's business activities cause damage to consumers, consumers can claim compensation liability from either the registration operator or the actual operator.
It should be noted that if consumers are unable to grasp the specific information of the other party during rights protection, and it is difficult to protect their rights, they can request the platform to provide information. If the platform cannot provide a true name, name, address, and effective contact information, consumers can request the platform operator to assume compensation liability.