Recently, according to the information of the market supervision administrative punishment document network, Unified Commerce and Trade (Kunshan) Co., Ltd. was fined 60,000 yuan and ordered to stop the illegal behavior for illegal reward sales and its subordinates. On July 14, the staff of the unified enterprise responded to the Nandu reporter that it was a part of the program failure in the lottery system. Nandu reporter noted that this is not the first time that the company has been fined for illegal and reward sales, and in 2018 it was fined 50,000 yuan for similar reasons.
The reward sales activity was punished for illegal operations, and the response said that it was a program failure
According to the administrative penalty decision, on February 25, 2021, the Market Supervision and Administration Bureau of Binhai County, Jiangsu Province, received a report from consumers that the 450ml of uniform fresh oranges sold by supermarkets were more, and the "open cap scanning code win thousand yuan gift" advertised on the bottle had a prize sales activity that affected consumers' lottery and exchange, which was deceptive.
On the day after receiving the report, the Binhai County Market Supervision and Administration Bureau organized law enforcement personnel to inspect the fresh oranges sold by the supermarket, and 2 bottles were drawn from the 8 bottles of fresh oranges purchased randomly for the scan code lottery. After scanning the code into the Mini Program, the mobile phone screen displays "Congratulations on winning the lottery, congratulations on obtaining 3 rescue values", and law enforcement officers found that they actually only obtained "1 rescue value", not the corresponding "3 rescue value", which is consistent with consumer feedback.
After investigation, the Binhai County Market Supervision and Administration Bureau determined that there were two illegal operations in the unified fresh orange multi-prize sales activities. First, the rescue value displayed is inconsistent with the actual rescue value; the second is that the winning rate expressed in the activity description is 0.1%, and the value is wrong, because according to the rules of the activity, consumers can use the rescue value obtained to enter the rescue mall to participate in the lottery, and can also use the rescue value to redeem the prize in the exchange area, and the probability of winning the lottery is changed by the change of the consumer choosing to use the rescue value, and the fixed probability of winning the lottery cannot be calculated.
In the end, the Binhai County Market Supervision and Administration Bureau ruled that Unified Commerce (Kunshan) Co., Ltd. had violated the Anti-Unfair Competition Law, ordered the parties to stop the "open cover and scan the code to win a thousand yuan gift" prize sales activities, and decided to impose a fine of 60,000 yuan.
After the incident, on March 2, 2021, Unified Commerce (Kunshan) Co., Ltd. changed the above-mentioned activity rules for prize sales, adding the content of "scanning a 450ml bottle of fresh orange multi-cap QR code to obtain 1 rescue value; scanning a bottle of 2L fresh orange can obtain 3 rescue values".
On July 14, Nandu reporter contacted the staff of the unified corporate public relations department, who said that the main problem was that some of the procedures in the lottery system failed, and the screen display page after scanning the code lottery was wrong. The problematic lottery system is not developed by a unified enterprise, and the faulty part has been repaired within 24 hours, and the background data has not been affected. Afterwards, the relevant brand activities are still ongoing, and there is no real intention to infringe on consumer rights.
Regarding the question of the lottery rate, the staff of the Unified Enterprise Public Relations Department responded that the same products and the same lottery activities, the law enforcement considerations of the market supervision and management departments in various places are different, there will be deviations, and similar problems have been encountered before. It said that for the differences in law enforcement in various places, the unified enterprises will show respect and will learn from it, but the lottery itself is no problem. Before each launch event, it undergoes a rigorous internal review and strictly complies with national laws and regulations.
The unity behind the lottery controversy and "fresh orange more"
Nandu reporter noted that as early as 2018, the unified enterprise had already been fined for similar reasons. Previously, Unification (Kunshan) Trading Co., Ltd. was fined 50,000 yuan and ordered to stop the illegal act in the "Drinking Tomato Juice Red Luck 'Fanfan'" prize sales activity held by Unity (Kunshan) Trading Co., Ltd. in the reward time information of the prize set by the prize sales, which violated the Anti-Unfair Competition Law.
According to public information, the penalty of Unity (Kunshan) Trading Co., Ltd. is wholly owned by Unity Enterprise (China) Investment Co., Ltd. and is a limited liability company wholly owned by a foreign legal person. The company's business scope covers tea beverages, fruit juices and vegetable juices, protein drinks, etc. According to the 2020 annual report of the unified enterprise, due to the impact of the epidemic, the beverage business declined by 1.3% compared with the same period last year.
It is reported that the unified "fresh orange multi" orange juice drink involved in this case has been launched in China since 2001, and has occupied the top spot in domestic juice consumption for many years, and the market share in the later period has declined all the way. According to the 2018 Unified Enterprise Annual Report, fruit juice beverages became the only category in the Unified Beverages that declined. In order to further expand the market share in the "post-95s" and "post-00s", in 2019, "Fresh Orange Duo" signed Wang Yuan, a member of the idol group TFBOYS, as a spokesperson.
In Taiwan, "fresh orange" is a juice trademark applied for by the unification; however, in the mainland market, the unification does not have the trademark of "fresh orange", and "fresh orange" is only a category of juice products. The unified company retreated to the second place, only the "fresh orange" design, that is, the bottle sticker as a patent application, and in January 2009, it obtained the design patent protection of the State Patent Office.
Written by: Nandu trainee reporter Fang Shiqi
![Fresh oranges are punished! Open the cover to win the lottery, and the black curtain behind it is exposed[fig]](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAP///wAAACwAAAAAAQABAAACAkQBADs=)