Be wary of the "sweet trap" of Internet medical beauty

Source: International Business Daily

With the continuous rise of the concept of beauty economy, in recent years, the Internet medical aesthetic industry has also been full of vitality. However, plastic surgery diaries are fake, products are mixed with fake and fake products, and illegal surgery causes irreparable physical harm... Under the barbaric growth, the "beauty trap" of the Internet medical beauty industry has also been repeatedly exposed in the public eye, triggering a crisis of trust.

According to the investigation of the online consumer dispute mediation platform E-Su Bao, the Internet medical aesthetic complaints mainly focus on the eight major areas of plastic surgery failure, plastic diary fraud, the use of "three noes" products, the adulteration of products, the practice of medicine without a license, the inducement of cashback, the fact that "beauty loans" are usury loans and after-sales problems. Among the Internet medical beauty platforms, the two platforms of New Oxygen and More Beauty are more concentrated in consumer complaints, in addition, Yuemei App and Meituan Medical Beauty are also involved in complaint cases.

"Three noes" drugs are difficult to supervise, and illegal medical practice leads to accidents

In recent years, medical beauty chaos is not uncommon. Illegal medical practice, unlicensed clinics, "three noes" drugs, etc. have become the hardest hit areas, including some well-known Internet medical beauty platforms. In July 2019, new oxygen was exposed by the media to sell illegal drugs. On the black cat complaint platform, some consumers reported that Dr. Liu Medical Beauty Clinic in Shenzhen used domestic instruments to impersonate imported instruments, suspected of false publicity.

The frequent occurrence of medical accidents in the industry has aroused social concern. According to media reports, in July 2021, a woman in Dalian, Liaoning Province, died of cardiac arrest on the plastic surgery table during plastic surgery and breast augmentation surgery; after that, a female nurse yang mou in Nanyang, Henan Province, died unexpectedly while undergoing plastic surgery. In addition, the use of illegal drugs has led to the failure of plastic surgery, the appointment of regular hospitals but recommended to surgery in informal hospitals, resulting in difficult to repair disfigurement, photon rejuvenation but large-scale facial burns... Medical beauty accidents are endless.

In this regard, Meng Huixin, an analyst at the Legal Rights and Interests Department of the E-commerce Research Center of the Network Economic Society, believes that there have been many traps behind the seemingly prosperous medical beauty industry. Some Internet medical beauty platforms use consumers' pursuit of beauty to "brainwash" consumers strongly, but they are "greatly discounted" in their own basic settings, and there are hidden worries from drugs to doctors.

"The standardization and safety of the medical aesthetic industry are of paramount importance, and chaos will not only have an impact on the platform, but also make the credibility of the industry questioned." The tumor of industry chaos is not removed, and the future development is difficult. Meng Huixin said.

Cashback induces no cashback, and the "beautiful diary" is not real

In the era of social e-commerce, the platform has built a paradise for sharing and communication for people with the same needs, but it has also become a paradise for false advertising. Some consumers have reported that on platforms such as Xiaohongshu, they have found that under the guise of sharing, they are actually selling beauty instruments and recommending illegal plastic surgery projects.

Not only that, not long ago, the new oxygen App pushed promotional advertisements for writing diaries and taking cash in its opening page and home page, claiming to smash into 100 million yuan of benefits to let users publish before and after comparison photos of medical aesthetic surgery. However, on the black cat complaint platform, there are many complaints about the counterfeiting of new oxygen activities and the non-cashback after inducing the posting of pictures.

Some consumers said that the App's diary cashback subsidy activities have problems such as false information and tricking consumers into writing diaries. The platform side will privately build a group to guide users to write a diary, and the hundred million yuan cash subsidy is just a pretext, tricking consumers into brushing the diary to get subsidies, the day before the user withdraws, all the money subsidized in his account is emptied. The campaign tricked a large number of users into downloads and registrations.

Meng Huixin said that by inducing users to "write" beautiful diaries through cashback and other means, diary sharing has become a paid act of cooperation with the platform, which is a serious damage to the content ecology of the platform. For domestic consumers, "personal experience and experience sharing" is often more convincing than product advertising, and therefore, this kind of paid product recommendation has reached the effect of advertising. Some medical beauty merchants with low integrity and non-compliant qualifications have succeeded in this way, but they have "buried mines" for other consumers.

Meng Huixin said bluntly that App operations must comply with the provisions of laws and regulations such as the Cybersecurity Law and the Measures for the Administration of Internet Information Services, especially the dissemination and transmission of content must be compliant, which is a distinct "red line".

"Beauty loans" become usury loans, and it is difficult to get out of them

People who have watched the TV series "Sweeping The Black Storm" will definitely be familiar with the plot of "beauty loan" and "routine loan" in the play, but in real life, there are not a few people who fall into the trap of beauty loan for plastic surgery. From November 2018 to September 2019, in order to obtain a high refund from a medical beauty institution in Kunming, Huang took the three people recruited from the network to the medical beauty institution in the name of needing to recruit a network anchor, and tricked the other party into taking a loan on the loan platform.

In fact, many beauty App platforms will cooperate with financial lending institutions to launch "beauty loan" products. Some consumers who have beauty needs but do not have sufficient funds can easily choose loans under the inducement of the platform and consume in advance. But what they don't know is that even if there is a change in the later consumption process, they still need to continue to repay the loan. In addition, some beauty loan products even hide catty, including various hidden charges and high interest rates, and consumer rights protection is blocked.

There are many complaints about "beauty loans" on the black cat complaint platform, and some consumers reflect that they have been brainwashed by the platform to induce loan consumption, and some loans have an annual interest rate of more than 36%, and they are also required to add interest in subsequent repayments, and receive a large number of harassing phone calls.

"Some beauty loans are actually routine loans. If consumers realize that they have encountered a routine loan, they must protect their rights in time to avoid getting deeper and deeper. Meng Huixin said that consumers should treat loan behavior rationally and reasonably plan to repay the loan amount. When providing lending services to consumers, lending platforms should also clarify the loan interest rate and various forms of fee standards to consumers in a conspicuous manner.

Meng Huixin said frankly that the Internet medical beauty industry has alleviated the problem of asymmetry between medical beauty industry and consumer information to a certain extent, but there are also many problems, such as false information, illegal operation, inducing consumption, etc., which are directly related to consumers' trust in the medical beauty platform, and even affect the entire medical beauty industry. For the industry, remediation actions still have a long way to go. How to improve service capabilities, strengthen platform supervision, and maximize the protection of consumers' life and health rights and interests is the core issue that medical beauty platforms should pay attention to.