L'Oréal caught in the "darkest hour": false publicity and false delivery "two crimes plus"

Complaints, apologies, cessation of cooperation... L'Oréal, which frequently appeared on the hot search in this year's "Double 11", failed to give back to consumers with "the greatest strength of the year", but brought itself the "biggest" public opinion crisis of the year: while adding tens of thousands of consumer complaints, it was also officially named.

In this regard, some consumers lamented: is it worth losing consumer trust due to the promotion of some products?

Regarding L'Oréal's publicity and sales behavior this time, the lawyer pointed out that suspected false publicity, consumers can claim actual economic losses such as price differences from L'Oréal in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Consumer Rights and Interests Protection Law.

L'Oréal is caught in the "biggest of the year" false propaganda storm

In recent days, since L'Oréal has been mired in the "biggest of the year" false publicity storm, the controversy has been continuous. Under the pressure of strong public opinion, L'Oréal Paris apologized many times and finally offered a solution on the evening of November 18, according to the detailed solution of "L'Oréal Paris Vase Mask Promotion" released by L'Oréal Paris on the official micro-micro. L'Oréal divides consumers who have purchased pre-sale ampoule masks into two situations, and plans to compensate them with no threshold coupon of 200 yuan or two coupons of 499 yuan minus 100 yuan respectively.

Previously, in the early morning of November 18, L'Oréal made an official response and apologized for the first time in response to this matter, and related topics once again topped the hot search list.

L'Oréal Paris said that after preliminary investigation, some consumers auctioned goods at a lower price after pre-sale, because they used a variety of platforms and store offers, and enjoying these offers required a single order to reach a certain total price threshold, and the platform system would automatically stack the eligible discounts on the event goods to enjoy.

As for the troubles caused to consumers by the overly cumbersome and complex sales mechanism, L'Oréal Paris said: "We are working closely with relevant government departments to conduct a comprehensive and detailed investigation of the incident, and strive to give relevant consumers a fair and appropriate solution as soon as possible, and effectively protect and protect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers." We will continue to improve our processes, optimize our services, and work with all our partners to provide consumers with quality services and experiences. ”

It is understood that the matter originated from a live pre-sale activity conducted by L'Oréal in cooperation with a head anchor during the single eleven pre-sale on October 20. In response to the live broadcast, L'Oréal officials frequently said in the early publicity that its ampoule mask products will give "the greatest strength of the year", and a total of 50 masks are priced at 429 yuan.

However, from November 1 to 3, L'Oréal issued a large number of coupons for "full 999-200", and many consumers found that the same 50 ampoule masks were only 257 yuan in the live broadcast room of the L'Oréal brand.

In this regard, consumers who participated in the previous live pre-sale complained that the L'Oréal ampoule mask bought in the pre-sale of the Double Eleven live broadcast room was far more expensive than the spot. L'Oréal is suspected of false publicity and hopes that the brand side can refund the difference.

At the same time, many consumers have launched collective complaints on the black cat complaint platform, believing that L'Oréal Paris has falsely publicized, issued a large number of preferential coupons after paying the deposit, deceived consumers, and did not treat the difference equally. Platform data shows that as of 22:50 on the evening of the 17th, the number of collective complaints has approached 20,000, and the collective processing rate is only 9.6%.

The two head anchors Wei Ya and Li Jiaqi, who previously carried out live pre-sale cooperation with L'Oréal Paris, also issued statements, saying that this is unfair to consumers who squatted in the live broadcast room on the first day of the 10.20 pre-sale, trusted the live broadcast room, and purchased the product in the live broadcast room. Until this matter is properly resolved, Wei Ya and Li Jiaqi will suspend any form of cooperation with the L'Oréal Paris brand.

In response to the above statement, L'Oréal Paris said in an apology Weibo: "We have also seen the suggestions of Ms. Wei Ya and Mr. Li Jiaqi on this incident. At the same time, we must be responsible for all relevant consumers (including Ms. Wei Ya and Mr. Li Jiaqi's live broadcast room and other relevant consumers), after comprehensively and comprehensively considering the different situations of all relevant consumers, and under the premise of protecting the interests of all relevant consumers, we must propose appropriate solutions for all relevant consumers. ”

Below the apology Weibo, the Blue Whale financial reporter noticed that the views at the top of the comment area seem to have mostly begun to direct the spearhead to the anchor with the goods...

False publicity is not enough, false shipments to make up? Lawyers said consumers can protect their rights in accordance with the law

"The greatest effort of the year", which was originally the beautiful vision given by L'Oréal to the "Double 11" consumers, has now become the target of public criticism, and the ending is regrettable.

Regarding whether L'Oréal's pre-sale operation involves false publicity, Blue Whale Financial Reporter consulted Wu Gang, a partner and senior lawyer at Beijing Yunting Law Firm, who said: "If the above situation is true, especially L'Oréal's official self-proclaimed or authorized endorsement anchor in the early publicity in October, the product has given 'the maximum strength of the year', but the essence is higher than the subsequent double eleven activity price, I think it is suspected of false publicity." ”

According to him, consumers can refer to the example of "false advertising" in the Advertising Law to evaluate whether L'Oréal's above-mentioned promotion and sale of products is suspected of false publicity. The Advertising Law clearly determines that "information such as the performance, function, place of origin, use, quality, specifications, composition, price, producer, expiration date, sales status, and honors of the goods, or information such as the content, provider, form, quality, price, sales status, and honors of the goods, as well as information such as promises related to the goods or services, which are inconsistent with the actual situation and have a substantial impact on the purchase behavior" is "false advertising".

In this incident, the consumer mainly placed an order based on the publicity that the actual price of the product involved in the case was "the greatest strength of the year", and it was later found that the product had a more favorable actual price in The Double Eleven, so for the consumer, the above-mentioned publicity and sales behavior was suspected of false publicity. Consumers may claim actual economic losses such as price differences from L'Oréal in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Consumer Rights and Interests Protection Act.

The People's Daily commentary also pointed out that the pre-sale was originally intended to facilitate merchants to prepare goods in advance and schedule goods, so that consumers can get affordable prices, but if the lowest price is advertised but does not fulfill the promise, the relevant after-sales service cannot keep up, which not only hurts the trust of consumers, but also suspects false publicity. The price of goods can be discounted, and the quality and service must not be discounted. For merchants and platforms, routines are not a long-term solution, and respect for consumers can win the future.

In fact, in this storm, in addition to the existence of cattiness at the level of publicity and promotion, L'Oréal was also named by the China Consumer Association for false shipments.

On November 18, the China Consumers Association released the 2021 "Double 11" consumer rights protection public opinion analysis report on its official website. During the 24-day monitoring period from October 20 to November 12, a total of 227795 negative information about "false shipments" were collected, with an average daily information volume of 9491. The amount of public opinion information began to increase from November 1, reaching a peak of 28,202 on November 6.

Among them, L'Oréal is regarded as one of the typical cases of "false delivery". It is understood that many netizens have reported that L'Oréal's logistics information is not updated, and the customer service robot cannot communicate effectively. "The balance paid on the 1st, the 11th is still in Beijing, it turned out to be a false shipment, so in the end how to complain about the law is useful, my 800+ money will not be refundable... L'Oréal entered the My Life Blacklist store. A netizen said helplessly.

Regarding the delivery situation and the reasons for the stagnation of logistics, the Blue Whale financial reporter contacted L'Oréal for an interview, but as of press time, no reply has been received.

In recent years, the contribution of the Chinese market to L'Oréal's performance cannot be underestimated. According to the financial report data, as of September 30 this year, L'Oréal's sales reached 23.19 billion euros, an increase of 18% year-on-year. Among them, L'Oréal China continued to maintain double-digit growth in the third quarter, with sales in the third quarter up 42.8% compared with the same period in 2019.

In addition, L'Oréal North Asia President and China CEO Faubery also said that under the epidemic, L'Oréal's sales still achieved a 27% increase in 2020, and an increase of 34.2% in the first half of 2021. At the same time, China has also become the world's first market for 7 major brands of L'Oréal Paris, Lancôme and Coyan's.

Industry insiders pointed out that for such an important market, L'Oréal has previously made a series of strategic adjustments to try to grasp, but now it has fallen the consumer reputation due to small losses. Next, it is likely to trigger a round of consumer collective rights protection and even boycotts, how to restore consumer trust and reshape the brand image, will be a major test for L'Oréal.

This article originated from Blue Whale Finance