Investigation motivation Recently, a branch of Watsons in Yanqing, Beijing, was warned and fined 50000 yuan by the market supervision department for allegedly using false price means to trick consumers into trading with them. The administrative penalty book shows that during the promotion activities, the store marked the original price of the two facial mask at 49 yuan and the promotion price at 44 yuan. In fact, the transaction prices of the two facial mask were 44.1 yuan for many times 20 days before the promotion activities. This is not the first time that Watsons has been punished for false promotion, nor is there such a problem with the Watsons family. In recent years, with the rapid development of online shopping platforms, it is common to see false promotions in various stores offline. With the arrival of the "618" Shopping Festival, some online stores raised commodity prices in advance to reserve space for subsequent "discounts". In order to expose the means by which bad businesses carry out false promotions and explore the ways to rectify false promotions, the reporter conducted an investigation and interview. A few days ago, Ms. Zhou in Wuhan, Hubei experienced a strange thing - she bought 6 clothes in a clothing store on an online platform. The online store's page showed that she could enjoy a 50% discount if she bought 4 clothes. However, when she placed an order, she found that the total price of clothes was still calculated according to the original price. Ms. Zhou learned from the communication with the customer service that the discount method of this discount is different from that in the past. She needs to buy these clothes at the original price first. After the receipt is confirmed, photos are taken and good comments are uploaded, the customer service will return the amount of discount to her. In the face of Ms. Zhou's doubt, the customer service explained that: the store is about to usher in a new round of discount activities. If the clothes are sold to Ms. Zhou at a discount price now, the lowest transaction price within 7 days will no longer be the original price, and then the discount strength and publicity effect of the activities will also be affected. But the customer service assured Ms. Zhou that the discount now is the same as the "big promotion discount" later. This routine makes Ms. Zhou laugh and cry. In fact, there are too many tricks hidden in the discounts. A recent investigation by the reporter of the rule of law daily found that some online and offline businesses use discounts to induce customers' consumption. Some have greatly increased the "original price", and some have made an article on the full discount. The endless routines have made many consumers "hit the jackpot" repeatedly. The false discount is still the original price Not long ago, a supermarket in Chaoyang District of Beijing launched a vegetable discount promotion, which attracted many customers to buy. Take tomatoes as an example. The marking price is 8.9 yuan, which is 2.67 yuan after a 30% discount. However, the market supervision department found that the lowest transaction price of the tomato was 5.34 yuan in the previous 7 days. The regulatory authorities ordered the supermarket to immediately correct its illegal acts, and planned to give a warning and impose an administrative penalty of 50000 yuan. With the rise of e-commerce platforms, online shopping has triggered a wave of discounts, especially at the "double 11" and "618" nodes. In some online stores and live broadcasting rooms, goods with ultra-low discounts and "fracture" prices can be seen everywhere, attracting traffic and increasing sales. Recently, the reporter saw in a live broadcast room called "drunken life" on a short video platform that the anchor with goods is trying hard to shout out a Baijiu: "our wine is sold for 1299 yuan on the market. Now the live broadcast room gives you family benefits. Six bottles are only 98 yuan. This is an internal discount for me and the factory. If you want to buy it quickly!" Not only that, the anchor also showed the price of this wine on a shopping platform: 398 yuan a bottle. The reporter then clicked on the link provided by the anchor to see that the price of an online shop selling wine on a certain platform was indeed 398 yuan a bottle. However, after searching the flagship store of the wine on another e-commerce platform, the reporter found that the price of the wine was 98 yuan for 6 bottles. It's just a false discount. It's not cheaper than usual. Mr. Fang in Anqing, Anhui Province, was particularly angry that he was going to buy a few bottles of discounted Baijiu during the "618" event. He found that the price after the event was even higher than the usual price. He told the reporter that the original price of a combination set of Baijiu in a platform online store he was concerned about was 1297 yuan, "200 less than 1200", and the arrival price was 1097 yuan; In the recent "618" pre-sale, the original price has changed to 1477 yuan. After using "1200 minus 200", the pre-sale coupon is 1177 yuan. At the same time, two bottles of low-grade Baijiu with a unit price of about 30 yuan will be given away. "After half a day's discount, the price is more expensive than usual. The merchants are full of routines." Mr. Fang said. In this regard, zhaozhanzhan, a lawyer from Beijing Yunjia law firm, said that with regard to the definition of "original price" in promotion, the national development and Reform Commission's notice on the interpretation of relevant provisions of the provisions on the prohibition of price fraud stipulates that "original price" refers to the lowest transaction price of transaction bills that the operator has traded on this trading place within seven days before this promotion; If there is no transaction within the previous seven days, the last transaction price before this promotion shall be taken as the original price. "Therefore, if an operator uses' original price 'in promotional activities, or uses' daily price' and other similar expressions to actually convey the meaning of 'original price', it shall comply with this provision." Zhangxinbao, a professor of the Law School of Renmin University of China, said that the common form of false discounts is the behavior of businesses to raise the price of goods or services before the discount, and then discount them after rising to a higher level. This behavior is an inducement and fraud to consumers, and the regulatory authorities should investigate and deal with it. Full discount package infringes consumers' right to know The discount routine of merchants is not only limited to "raising prices first and then discounting", but also has made great efforts in various full discount discounts and discount coupons. "Shopping Festival offers are getting harder and harder." The endless category coupons and complex rules of full reduction give Ms. Zhang a headache in Beijing. For example, she bought a skin care product with a price of 214 yuan in a cosmetics flagship store on an e-commerce platform. According to the publicity of the merchant, after she made a deposit of 40 yuan, she could place an order with two full reduced coupons (the total amount of discount was 105 yuan) after 0:00 the next day. "I waited until midnight to place the order and emptied the shopping cart. After placing the order, I found that the two coupons were used for different goods in the two online stores, and the discount was greatly reduced." Ms. Zhang angrily told the reporter that she would not have bought this skin care product without such a big discount. Ms. Zhang plans to place a new order after returning the goods, but the customer service says that there is no need to place a new order, and the price difference can be refunded directly after arrival. However, when Ms. Zhang signed for it, the customer service refused to refund the price difference on the ground that the full discount coupons could not be superimposed. After the communication failed, Ms. Zhang dialed the telephone of the Consumer Association. With the help of the Consumer Association, after nearly two weeks, Ms. Zhang finally received a supplement through the coordination of the e-commerce platform. Coincidentally, Ms. Li from Jincheng, Shanxi Province, recently placed an order for a brand sunscreen in the broadcasting room, and was stunned by various discounts. In the live broadcast room, the anchor claimed that the price of the live broadcast room of the brand sunscreen clothes was far lower than the price of the flagship store. If you place an order immediately, you can enjoy a coupon of 130 yuan for the live broadcast room and a discount of 50 yuan for more than 300 yuan across stores, that is, a sunscreen clothes of 339 yuan can be won for 159 yuan. However, when placing an order, Ms. Li found that when she used various coupons, the paid in price was 214.38 yuan, higher than the price of the flagship store. Finally, she asked the customer service, and the other party did a calculation, but she didn't understand what the problem was. Zhouxuliang, director of Beijing Guanling law firm, said that the Interim Provisions on regulating sales promotion issued by the State Administration of market supervision clearly stipulates that operators who discount the price through points, gift certificates, exchange certificates, vouchers, etc., should clearly indicate or disclose the specific methods for discount calculation through store notices, etc. It is obviously illegal for operators to publicize false preferential discounts. Zhouxuliang pointed out that the operators publicized false preferential discounts, which made consumers unable to know the real transaction price, and infringed upon consumers' legitimate rights and interests such as the right to know and the right to fair trade. This is a fraud. Consumers can, in accordance with the provisions of the consumer rights and interests protection law, require merchants to bear the punitive liability of three times the commodity price. In addition, operators who publicize false preferential discounts will also be subject to administrative penalties. According to the provisions on administrative penalties for price violations, the competent price department of the government will order them to make corrections, confiscate their illegal gains and impose a fine of less than 5 times their illegal gains; If there are no illegal gains, a warning shall be given and a fine of not less than 20000 yuan but not more than 200000 yuan may be imposed; If the circumstances are serious, it shall be ordered to suspend business for rectification or even its business license shall be revoked. Supervise and urge the platform to perform its duties conscientiously and highlight the operation of certificate and standard How to effectively control the false discount behavior? Zhuxiaofeng, a professor at the Law School of the Central University of Finance and economics, suggested that the main responsibility should be strictly implemented, the access to the platform should be well controlled, the obligation of review and verification should be implemented, and the operators in the platform should be urged to operate with bright photos, certificates and standards; All Internet platform enterprises should improve the openness and transparency of their promotional activities, and prohibit illegal methods such as "raising prices first and then discounting", fictitious original prices, and failure to fulfill price commitments. At the same time, we should strictly regulate the advertising release, improve the advertising review level, put an end to false publicity and vulgar advertising, and effectively intercept false and illegal advertising; Unfair competition shall be strictly prohibited, and promotion shall not be carried out by eliminating or restricting competition, or by hindering or destroying the network products or services legally provided by other business operators. We should properly resolve online consumption disputes, improve efficient and convenient complaint acceptance, handling and feedback mechanisms, unblock channels for consumer complaints, timely accept and effectively handle complaints and reports, and actively assist consumers in safeguarding their legitimate rights and interests. "We should also strengthen the communication and cooperation between government and enterprises, actively cooperate with the regulatory authorities to investigate and deal with relevant violations of laws and regulations of operators in the platform according to law, form a positive interaction between platform autonomy and government supervision, and jointly guide the operators in the platform to improve their awareness of law-abiding operation. The local market regulatory authorities should strengthen guidance, urge and guide the platform enterprises to fulfill their legal obligations and implement their main responsibilities through offline interviews, online guidance, publicity and education, and strengthen Monitoring and supervision, strictly investigating and dealing with illegal acts, unblocking 12315 complaint and reporting channels, protecting the legitimate rights and interests of consumers, and standardizing the order of the online trading market. " Zhuxiaofeng said. Zhao Zhanzhan reminded consumers that it is best to shop around before shopping. For goods of special concern, you can usually pay more attention to their selling prices, and then compare them with the prices during the promotion period to determine whether there are real discounts and their strength, rather than blindly believing in the discount information advertised by the merchants. (reporter handandong Intern guanchuyu) (outlook new era)