Draw a "red line" for blind box operations, so that consumers will no longer "blindly" | Beijing News quick review

On January 14, the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Market Supervision issued the "Shanghai Blind Box Business Activity Compliance Guidelines". Photo/ Website of Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Market Supervision

According to the surging news, the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Market Supervision recently issued the "Shanghai Blind Box Business Activities Compliance Guidelines", which put forward a series of compliance business suggestions for blind box business activities, including regulating the blind box price system, standardizing marketing speculation, and formulating a mechanism for the protection of minors, and clarifying that live animals must not be sold in the form of blind boxes. On January 14, the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Market Supervision interpreted the Guidelines. It is reported that this "Guideline" lasted more than half a year of market research, aiming to draw a "red line" for the blind box operation of the industry.

At the moment when the blind box economy is frequently chaotic, Shanghai has taken the lead in issuing the industry "Guidelines" in the country to guide its standardized operation, which can be said to be opportune, which can not only protect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers and safeguard the social public interest, but also help the blind box economy bid farewell to "blind" growth and enter the right track as soon as possible.

Looking at the "Guidelines", it basically covers the business scope, transportation, pricing, extraction and other links, and formulates practical normative provisions, which are highly targeted. For example, the Guidelines make it clear that blind box business activities should comply with the provisions of relevant laws, regulations and rules, and the business scope is generally in the fields of daily life consumption, literature, art and entertainment. This means that the blind box economy is not a lawless place, and any blind box form of sales must be legal and compliant, drawing a "red line" for the blind box operation.

In view of the blind box consumption often use information asymmetry, the price of the sky, distort the relationship between supply and demand, contrary to the law of the market economy and other chaos, the "Guidelines" also make it clear that the actual value of the goods in the blind box should be basically equivalent to its sales price, the price of a single blind box generally does not exceed 200 yuan, and the price of ordinary commodities must not be raised in the form of blind boxes. It is foreseeable that through the strategy of price capping, the space for improper pricing and profiteering of merchants can be further compressed.

In particular, it is worth noting that the Guidelines require blind box operators to fully inform consumers of information such as the type of goods, the rules for drawing boxes, the quantity of goods placed, and the probability of hidden money extraction, and retain complete probability settings, extraction results, and distribution records for future reference. Clarifying the sampling rules and publishing key information such as the number of deliveries and the probability of extraction can make consumers have a bottom in mind and clearly understand geographical consumption.

In addition, the Guidelines also make it clear that blind boxes must not be sold to minors under the age of 8; marketing hype such as sky-high price speculation, excessive marketing, and hunger marketing must not be carried out. These contents are undoubtedly the results of in-depth market research, and they are quite realistic and targeted.

To this end, although the "Guidelines" issued by Shanghai this time are only suggestive, they can still be regarded as a sign of the loosening and tightening of the supervision of the blind box operation industry, and also an important reference basis for functional departments in handling related consumer disputes.

As a new consumption, the blind box economy is the trend of the times to bid farewell to "blind" growth and gradually move towards the right track. The "Guidelines" issued by Shanghai this time are like an "introduction", which is conducive to promoting the construction of relevant laws and regulations and regulatory systems, so as to truly realize that the blind box economy has a law to follow and strong supervision.

Author | Wu Ruiyu (Staff)

Edit | Chi Daohua

Proofreading | Wu Xingfa