China Net： ＂Professional Eating＂, Counterfeiting or Blackmailing？

　　Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, December 7 (Reporter Wu Sisi, Ge Sang, Bian Jue) Recently, the long-active "professional foodies" have been exposed one after another. The so-called "professional eating goods" refers to that some online shoppers take advantage of the loopholes in the rules of the online platform and ask merchants to "only refund and not return" to "eat goods", and some "eating goods" will ask merchants for high compensation. The "foodies" are often eyeing fake goods or goods that are exaggerated by merchants. This kind of behavior has also caused some controversy.

　　"88 yuan takes the introduction, a single return."

　　"Eat food for me", "Go and help me type the link, and come back to the owner to get the red envelope", "Can this goods get on the bus?" … … Conversations like this are the "jargon" between "professional foodies".

　　Searching for related keywords on the internet can easily find more than a dozen related group chats, and most groups can join without verification. The reporter found that these groups are generally group chat managers talking, except for the specified time, the other time is set to the all-staff silence mode. The manager will send some links to the group in advance, calling on the group friends to "link". After success, there will be a red envelope reward, and some group friends will send relevant links to the group to ask if the product can "get on the bus".

　　This kind of operation takes advantage of the loopholes in the rules of online shopping platform to protect consumers. They will look for goods suspected of fake goods and absolute propaganda slogans to place orders. After receiving the goods, they will take this as a reason and threaten to complain and invalidate the purchase link of the goods, so as to achieve the purpose of only refunding, not returning or getting high compensation.

　　Shortly after the reporter joined the group chat, some group owners took the initiative to add friends. "88 yuan brings an introduction, a single return." A group owner came straight to the point and sent a lot of screenshots of Alipay’s transfer, showing the transfer records given by the Taobao store that successfully claimed, ranging from 5,000 yuan to 7,000 yuan. The scope of "eating goods" includes online platforms such as Taobao and Hungry.

　　In addition, there are black and gray industrial chains such as empty package network, false logistics, fake certificate and so on. "When merchants don’t agree to only refund, some buyers will send empty packages to complete the return process. Because of the large market demand, some websites make profits from this business. " The relevant person in charge of Taobao platform said.

　　Controversy: Is it counterfeiting or extortion?

　　During the investigation, the reporter tried to ask whether he could "hit the real goods" and was quickly denied. "You can only eat goods, fake goods and compensate."

　　Because most of the selected products are suspected of being fake or defective, the behavior of "professional eating goods" has also been polarized after exposure.

　　"Isn’t this behavior extortion?" "Like the robber, the victim report? To what extent are foodies illegal? " "We should pay attention to this situation and do extortion under the banner of safeguarding consumer rights." On the Internet, many netizens are critical of the behavior of "professional eating goods". However, some netizens believe that if it is aimed at fake goods, it will also be beneficial to regulate business behavior to some extent. "I feel that as long as you don’t sell fake goods, ‘ Chihuo ’ You won’t catch the handle. " "If you don’t sell fakes, you won’t be afraid of these ‘ Eating goods ’ " … …

　　When reporters follow the compensation clues sent by the group owners and find the corresponding online sellers to show their intentions, these businesses often do not respond and are silent.

　　"There is nothing unusual about this kind of behavior from the transaction process, and it is difficult for us to detect it. Most merchants choose to keep things quiet after being blackmailed and do not give feedback to the platform. " The relevant person in charge of Taobao said.

　　"From a legal perspective, this is an act of profiting from the loopholes in the rules of the e-commerce platform, but it does not constitute a crime. However, if an ambitious person uses the rules to set up a company or a small group, it can be regarded as illegal business. " Wang Zhenkun, a practicing lawyer at Guangdong Jiadexin Law Firm, said.

　　The platform needs to build more perfect management rules.

　　The reporter learned that the Hangzhou Internet Court had previously pronounced a "professional foodie" claim case prosecuted by Taobao.

　　In this case, the defendant Zhou applied for 624 refunds after placing 633 orders in more than one month, and 612 refunds were successful, amounting to more than 32,000 yuan. The reasons for the refund were highly consistent. Hangzhou Internet Court ruled that Zhou’s application for refund only obviously did not conform to ordinary people’s shopping habits. His refund on the grounds of fake goods could not prove that the seller did not provide the goods as agreed or provided unqualified goods. The defendant Zhou’s wrong behavior infringed on the civil rights and interests of the plaintiff Taobao, and he should bear tort liability.

　　It is understood that Zhou has filed an appeal. Taobao said that today’s "professional eating" behavior not only makes the seller lose the payment, but more importantly, it hurts the trust between the seller and the consumer and destroys the shopping ecological environment.

　　In addition, the Interim Measures for Handling Complaints and Reports of Market Supervision and Management issued by the State Administration of Market Supervision a few days ago will come into effect on January 1, 2020, in which Article 15 stipulates that "it is not necessary to buy or use goods or accept services for daily consumption, or it cannot be proved that there is a dispute between consumers and the respondent", and the market supervision and management department will not accept it. The industry believes that this has a positive effect on regulating the behavior of "professional eating goods".

　　"The platform should formulate stricter rules under the legal framework, such as judging from the number of complaints and the amount of goods ‘ Chihuo ’ Behavior. " Wang Zhenkun said, "On the other hand, this has also promoted the further improvement of the e-commerce order, and merchants are on the alert ‘ Chihuo ’ At the same time, from the quality of the goods themselves, the degree of publicity self-regulation. The platform needs to improve supervision, eliminate bad businesses, and form a benign guidance in the long run. "

　　Taobao said that it will not adjust the relevant rules of "refund only". "From the perspective of protecting consumers’ rights and interests, this rule itself is correct and in line with the law. Calling on merchants to encounter such situations should actively respond to the platform instead of choosing to pay for it. "