Let the blind box no longer be ＂blind＂, and the General Administration of Market Supervision will rectify the ＂chaos＂ in the industry.

Under the trend of "everything can be blind box", chaos is gradually increasing. On the evening of August 16th, the State Administration of Market Supervision issued a notice (hereinafter referred to as the "draft for comments") on publicly soliciting opinions on the "Guidelines for the Standardization of Blind Box Business Activities (Trial)", and the chaos of blind boxes driving up prices and selling live animals will be rectified.

"It wasn’t very addictive at first, but later there were more and more hot styles, and I wanted to buy them when I saw something good." Liu Shen, a white-collar worker in Guangzhou, told the Shell Finance reporter of the Beijing News that after buying the first blind box "Lin Shen is nowhere to be found" from college, he has spent more than 8,000 yuan one after another. "Most of the time I bought it from flagship stores or offline stores, and I encountered fewer’ pits’. The second-hand markets such as live broadcast rooms are the concentrated places where blind box lovers are’ pitted’."

Respondents have repeatedly bought hidden money at high prices on second-hand platforms. Figure/Respondents for the picture

The Beijing News Shell Finance reporter noted that the "blind box chaos" is everywhere. Rui Han, a consumer, said that when he first "into the pit", he opened a blind box in the live broadcast room of a merchant and got a hidden money, but after receiving the goods, it became an ordinary money. "Some merchants will raise the price for no reason. Even for ordinary models, the price will be raised by one-third or more by some’ yellow cattle’." In addition, Rui Han has repeatedly bought hidden blind boxes at high prices. "Just like obsessive-compulsive disorder, not only do you have to’ end the box’, but you also have to buy hidden money." makeRui HanFortunately, she had "retired" six months ago.

In view of the above phenomenon, it is proposed in the exposure draft that blind box operators should reasonably determine the price of blind boxes according to production and operation costs and market supply and demand. Blind box operators shall clearly mark the prices of goods or services, and shall not sell goods at a higher price than the marked price, and shall not carry out illegal acts such as not marking the prices clearly according to regulations, driving up prices, price fraud, etc. If the goods are sold in the form of blind boxes, the cost gap of the same set of goods or services should not be too large. The price of blind box goods should not be too different from the price of homogeneous and similar non-blind box sales goods.

In view of the chaos of speculating blind boxes in the second-hand market, the exposure draft proposes to encourage blind box operators to establish a guarantee mechanism and guide rational consumption by setting the upper limit of the withdrawal amount and the upper limit of the number of times. Encourage blind box operators to consciously promise not to hoard goods, not to speculate, not to directly enter the secondary market, and accept social supervision.

In January of this year, KFC and POP MART, a blind box brand, jointly launched the "DIMOO joint-brand blind box package", which caused consumers to snap up. According to the sales rules of this blind box package, you need to buy at least 6 packages in order to collect the whole set of dolls, of which the probability of rare hidden models is 1:72. To this end, some consumers will not hesitate to spend 10494 yuan to buy 106 packages at one time; There are also consumers who buy "substitute food" service for "begging for a baby", hire people to buy and eat packages on behalf of them to get blind boxes, and even do not rule out throwing away the food that can’t be eaten directly.

In this regard, the exposure draft is intended to stipulate that foods, medicines, medical devices, special cosmetics, toxic and harmful substances, inflammable and explosive substances, live animals, and express mail have strict requirements in terms of conditions of use, storage and transportation, inspection and quarantine, supervision and management, etc. Goods may not be sold in the form of blind boxes.

In view of the phenomenon of food waste caused by blind box sales of catering brands, the draft for comment intends to stipulate that food operators who use blind box products to carry out promotional activities in the process of food sales and catering services should abide by the relevant provisions of the Anti-Food Waste Law of People’s Republic of China (PRC). Catering service operators shall not induce or mislead consumers to order too much food.

Recently, Ms. Jia Bao told the media that her 6-year-old daughter was lying on the sofa, raising her ass high and imitating the shapes of two blind box dolls. Ms. Jia noticed that the two dolls, one is a clown and the other is a cowboy. They are all lying on pillows, with their buttocks tilted, and their buttocks are decorated with balloons and cacti.

After careful inquiry, Ms. Jia learned that this is a blind box that her daughter and grandmother took their children to a trendy shop in the mall to buy. After returning, the child has been imitating the doll’s "sleeping position". Ms. Jia believes that this kind of clothing and modeling is easy to have a bad influence on children. It is worth noting that this series of blind boxes also includes a doll with a bunny hair accessory, black stockings and a cocked ass. The "fragrant" shape has attracted some parents’ doubts and worries. "Adults will blush when they look at this kind of costume, let alone children."

In this regard, the draft for comments pointed out that blind box operators are not allowed to sell blind boxes to minors under the age of 8. When selling blind box goods to minors aged 8 and above, it should be confirmed that the consent of the relevant guardians has been obtained through on-site inquiry or online identification. In addition, the exposure draft also pointed out that local authorities are encouraged to introduce protective measures to specifically regulate the blind box sales model around the primary school campus, including distance and content.

Chen Yinjiang, Deputy Secretary-General of china law society Consumer Protection Law Research Association, said that blind box consumption reflects some young people’s irrational consumption concept of pursuing novelty, speculation and excitement. Young people have relatively weak self-control and are easily induced to consume irrationally. Some young consumers are completely out of curiosity or blindly follow the trend, investing a lot of money in so-called fad consumption such as buying blind boxes, and often can’t buy goods with corresponding value in the end.

Chen Yinjiang believes that consumers should consume rationally and not be confused by some so-called blind box gimmicks, so as not to spend a high price, neither buying a pleasant mood nor buying a value-for-money product. "Chaowan culture and blind box culture want to maintain lasting vitality, we must abandon low-level interesting marketing methods, but work hard to improve the cultural taste and value of Chaowan, so that consumers can truly enjoy the positive cultural elements of Chaowan. Chaowan culture can’t just induce consumers to pay high fees in the form of entertainment or games, but they can’t get the value that matches their efforts. Otherwise, this typical abnormal consumption pattern is doomed not to last long. "

Beijing News Shell Finance reporter Yu Menger

Editor Jake　

Proofread Liu Baoqing

Photo courtesy of respondents