"Portable tobacco, factory direct sales, complete brands, like the family to shoot it..." In a live broadcast room, the anchor shouted excitedly to sell tobacco.
Unexpectedly, the so-called "factory direct sales" turned out to be illegal operations. As a buyer reported buying counterfeit tobacco shreds, the police followed the line and detected this huge transnational network of illegal tobacco products.
A recent investigation by a reporter from Rule of Law Daily found that although tobacco is a monopoly and it is forbidden to sell tobacco monopoly products through the information network without permission, online tobacco trading is still hot, and it is very easy to find tobacco promotion or purchase information.
Experts interviewed bluntly said that online tobacco sales undermine the order of the domestic tobacco market, may lead to the proliferation of counterfeit and shoddy products, damage the legitimate rights and interests of consumers, and even worse, give many minors the opportunity to obtain tobacco, damage the physical and mental health of minors, and urgently need to be rectified in accordance with the law.
Online merchant black box operation
Selling tobacco in evasion of regulation
The illegal sale of tobacco online has long been banned.
According to the provisions of the Tobacco Monopoly Law, the State shall exercise monopoly management over the production, sale, import and export of tobacco monopoly products in accordance with the law, and implement a tobacco monopoly license system. At the same time, the Measures for the Administration of Tobacco Monopoly Licenses stipulate that no citizen, legal person or other organization may sell tobacco monopoly products through information networks, except for enterprises that have obtained a tobacco monopoly production enterprise license or a tobacco monopoly wholesale enterprise license selling tobacco monopoly products according to law.
Under the ban, search for "tobacco" on multiple e-commerce platforms, and the platform will automatically pop up a prompt: According to relevant regulations, no citizen, legal person or other organization may sell tobacco monopoly products through the information network, and shall not publish information on the promotion and sale of electronic cigarettes.
However, the reporter's investigation found that many businesses have "black box operations", for example, shops that claim to sell cigarette sets are actually selling cigarettes.
In an online store that sells pipes, the reporter saw that a product link showed "solid wood Yunnan pipe" on the surface. However, clicking on the product link found that the product picture listed rows of different styles of tobacco, and was marked with cigarette brands such as "Hibiscus King" and "Zhonghua". The merchant also "intimately" remarked the text "+V (that is, add a private social account), long-term cooperation" on the picture. On the product details page under the product "pipe", a packet of tobacco shredded tobacco appears.
Another merchant selling cigarette machines "routine" is more hidden, a cigarette machine, although the description and product pictures show that it is a cigarette machine, but when selecting the specifications of the product, it shows the number of the tobacco type. If you do not have a favorite tobacco variety, you can contact customer service, if there is a stock, the customer service will change the price of the "cigarette machine" order in the background and make a note.
There are also some merchants who "find a different way", such as on a shopping platform, the picture shows an empty cigarette box, and the text is "cigarette box collection, understand it, and the goods are hearty". Clicking on the detail page shows a variety of specification options named after cigarettes, and the price of cigarette packs varies according to the brand, and the price is almost the same as that of real cigarettes.
Who would buy an empty cigarette pack at the physical price? Open the comment area, the answer is obvious, it turns out that the merchant is not selling cigarette boxes, but tobacco.
At the same time, the reporter found that the live broadcast room also sold tobacco.
Search for "tobacco live broadcast" on a short video platform, and you will immediately see that many live broadcast rooms are selling tobacco. The reporter randomly clicked on a live broadcast room, and saw that the anchor was full of various styles of tobacco and introduced them one by one, but the reporter looked around but did not see the link to buy the goods.
Just when the reporter was puzzled, the anchor gave guidance: "If the family is interested, add a micro (hinting at a certain social software) according to the mahjong I am referring to!" The 'whiteboard' is 0. After adding him as a "friend", the reporter found that his store was selling tobacco products, and the "circle of friends" was full of introductions to various cigarettes, and you could place an order directly through the store link.
On another short video platform, there is a group of bloggers under the banner of "fighting food", and the "food" they fight is actually smoke. These accounts do not use keywords with the word "smoke" in their Page descriptions. Codes such as "Yunnan specialties", "hand-rolled silk" and "specialty grains" are often used to "play dumb riddles" to attract "like-minded people" and ask users to add their private contact information and trade in the social groups or private chats they have established.
The way of trading is extremely stealthy
It is easy to induce minors
"High quality, no additives, pure taste, no peculiar smell..." The reporter sneaked into the so-called "smoking supplies" social group and found that in addition to group friends sharing the use of smoking tools, more "merchants" were selling tobacco.
According to the pictures posted by the merchants in the group, these tobacco sold are not only domestic, but also many "foreign imports". These tobacco specifications are different and the price varies, the price of 100 grams is generally between tens and hundreds of yuan, and supports free shipping nationwide. There are also merchants who often share tobacco smoking experience and past transactions with customers in the group.
In addition to tobacco, some merchants also sell cigarette paper and other related tobacco monopoly products, with prices ranging from a few yuan to several hundred yuan.
To evade regulation, trading is becoming increasingly hidden. Many buyers and sellers choose to "chat" privately. There are also "tobacco"-related communication stickers such as "pipe bars", and when people share their "smoking experience", there are also "users" who sell tobacco in the sticker bar.
Similarly, there are many netizens who are asking for tobacco. The reporter searched for "buying tobacco" on a social platform, and many buyers posted purchase posts, mostly seeking to buy a certain brand of cigarettes, cigars in a certain price range, etc.
Many of these online buyers are greedy for cheapness. "Many smokers have recommended cigarette dealers to me, saying that the price will be much lower than the market price." Some netizens told reporters that some posters were suspected of being minors, with the texts "Student Party Asks for Recommendations" and "Can't Buy Cigarettes in Junior High School, Ask Big Guys to Show the Way".
Zhang Zhongkai, a lawyer at Beijing Gaojie Pengkai Law Firm, said that it is obviously illegal for businesses to sell tobacco products online through "black box operations" and "hanging sheep's heads to sell dog meat". As a special commodity, according to relevant laws and regulations, the sale of tobacco products should have a fixed place of business, and its business scope is limited to entity operation, and the sale of tobacco products through information networks is an illegal act beyond the scope of business and geographical scope.
Zhang Zhongkai told reporters that online trading of tobacco products is very harmful: it provides a market for counterfeit and shoddy and illegal tobacco products, disrupts the normal order of tobacco business, and causes huge losses in national tax revenue; Unable to effectively identify authenticity, and counterfeit and shoddy tobacco products are difficult to ensure the scientific and effective elimination of harmful substances in tobacco, which will cause more serious damage to consumers' bodies; "No one at both ends" not only makes it difficult for the administrative department of tobacco monopoly to supervise, but also very likely to be fraudulent.
Cheng Ke, deputy director of the Cultural Rule of Law Research Center of the School of Cultural Industry Management of Communication University of China, said that selling tobacco through the Internet may expose minors to tobacco products more, especially with the blessing of algorithm recommendations, which will cause serious harm to the health of adolescents.
"That's why online cigarette sales are banned." In response to a reporter's question, a relevant person from the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration said, "Online tobacco sales cannot effectively discourage young people from smoking because of their unhuman nature. ”
"Prohibiting the sale and purchase of tobacco products through the Internet can not only effectively avoid the loss of national tax revenue, protect the health of the people through effective supervision, but also effectively prevent and control other illegal and criminal acts arising from the online trading of tobacco products, and protect the physical and mental health of minors." Zhang Zhongkai said.
Online and offline linkage governance
Identification through technical monitoring
"Online tobacco sales must be banned." Mei Xiangrong, a lawyer at Beijing Yingke Law Firm, said that the Advertising Law stipulates that it is forbidden to publish tobacco advertisements in mass media or public places, public transportation, outdoor areas, and to send any form of tobacco advertisements to minors, but the business model under new media such as online live streaming sales and short video sales often makes it difficult to determine the application of the Advertising Law.
Mei Xiangrong believes that this situation is expected to change. The Measures for the Administration of Internet Advertising, which will be implemented on May 1 this year, stipulate the above situation in clear written form under the constraints of the Advertising Law and relevant laws, regulations, and departmental rules. "It can be said that if there is a direct or disguised tobacco advertising situation in the process of online sales, then even if the merchant has a monopoly license, it is illegal."
In order to combat the phenomenon of online tobacco sales, Mei Xiangrong proposed that multi-department joint governance is needed. In the past governance process, multi-head governance has produced inconsistent coordination and inconsistent law enforcement, and it is necessary to establish an overall planning mechanism in government supervision, strengthen information exchange, coordination and cooperation among various departments, and unify law enforcement, maintain the authority of the legal system, and ensure the implementation of relevant legal provisions.
Zhang Zhongkai suggested that the offline crackdown should be strengthened, the source of relevant tobacco smoking equipment should be traced, the interest chain of online sales of tobacco should be cut off from the source, and the punishment should be increased through legislation in a timely manner. In addition, regulatory authorities should establish a regular linkage governance mechanism with online platforms to ensure that illegal acts of online tobacco trading are discovered in a timely manner, collect and fix relevant evidence in accordance with the law, and ensure that illegal acts of online trading of tobacco products are legal, effective and severely punished.
Cheng Ke believes that it is necessary to further strengthen the review of relevant live broadcast and short video content, and monitor and identify it through technical means, and once the illegal sale of tobacco is discovered, the relevant content should be immediately deleted, and measures such as banning and blacklisting anchors should be taken to increase the punishment of relevant illegal acts. In addition, the role of public supervision should also be played to encourage the public to supervise and report on illegal tobacco sales online.
"Tobacco control is a mainstream trend." Mei Xiangrong said that the Internet is not a place outside the law, and banning online tobacco sales is conducive to the benign development of the e-commerce environment and the long-term common welfare of the whole society.
Reporter Han Dandong Intern Zhao Yujia
Source: Rule of Law Daily