Public Comments On Cracking Down On "Letter Speculation" And Suing Illegal Companies

How does a fake comment come into being? On the Internet, it has already formed an industrial chain by spending money to find people to comment and brush bills, and to improve the flow rapidly. In the fight against the network black industry chain, the police are sparing no effort to carry out operations.

"Move the finger, click the mouse, easy to make money" Nowadays, the network is full of a large number of similar recruitment information, and more and more "single handed" people are lured by the script to join illegal operation organizations. These black ash industrial chains have brought serious damage to consumers, operators in the platform, Internet platform enterprises and even the whole society.

A few days ago, the reporter of the 21st century economic report learned that the public commented on 11 companies that operated false propaganda and filed civil lawsuits to protect their rights, and 11 companies were investigated by the market supervision department or obtained evidence. The purpose of this action is to crack down on and severely punish illegal acts that disrupt the market operation order and damage the legitimate rights and interests of consumers.

In fact, illegal production has been banned on the Internet. Not only are the platforms such as public comments and little red books deeply troubled, but also a large number of "single brushing" information are also filled on the tourism platforms such as ctrip.com and mafengwo. At present, Shanghai, Qingdao and other law enforcement departments have continued to crack down on illegal acts, with penalties ranging from 100000 yuan to 500000 yuan.

"Five star" high praise price: 100 yuan

Online reviews have become an important basis for consumers to refer to, and also become a tool for lawbreakers to make profits. The 21st century economic reporter searched QQ group and found a large number of "comment welfare group". In the group, the group leader constantly publishes various "tasks", such as checking in at designated training institutions or restaurants, taking photos, buying group purchases, and writing favorable comments. After completion, they can receive commission and return the group purchase money.

These "single handed" participants did not understand the information released in the wechat group and pretended to comment on the official activities of the public, which were actually illegal black ash production. Through wechat group, Shanghai Demai culture communication company has attracted high-level users of public comments to do "brush one hand".

Recently, the company was fined 100000 yuan by Changning District Market Supervision Bureau. The law enforcement personnel verified that the company has, over the past three years, solicited customers through the introduction of acquaintances and Internet publicity, carried out "comment optimization service" for a number of merchants, and improved its star rating in public comments.

Law enforcement officials believe that the company's behavior violates China's anti unfair competition law. According to the Anti Unfair Competition Law of the people's Republic of China, business operators shall not help other operators to carry out false or misleading commercial propaganda by organizing false transactions; if an operator violates the provisions of Article 8 of this law, the supervision and inspection department shall order it to stop the illegal act and impose a fine of not less than 200000 yuan but not more than one million yuan; if the circumstances are serious, it shall be fined 100 yuan If a fine of more than 10000 yuan but less than 2 million yuan is imposed, the business license may be revoked. In view of the fact that the company immediately stopped relevant business and rectified immediately after being investigated and dealt with, the law enforcement department has reduced the punishment.

At the same time, "brush single" has also been punished, a large number of users in the public comment rating level has been reduced to level 1, the content is banned for 180 days, VIP and related rights and interests are also cancelled. In addition, He Mou, the general manager of an enterprise, is called "new media online promotion meituan review" on wechat, and uses the public comment trademark as the head image to attract business on the Internet.

Facing a nail and eyelash shop that came to inquire about the price, he said that the service content included the improvement of evaluation, the promotion of visitors and the increase of collection quantity. He also told the other party that "the amount of brush will not be detected". He even clearly marked the price, that is, no less than 100 pieces of five-star praise per month, with a total of 10000 yuan for three months, all completed by high-level users. The owner of this nail and eyelash shop believed it and signed the "online shop service contract" with his company, and paid 10000 yuan "service fee".

To this end, the public comment platform will he and his company to court. According to the court, he signed a contract with merchants to provide false publicity service of "brushing orders", which not only disrupted the market competition order, but also damaged the reputation of public comments, and constituted unfair competition. The court ruled that the defendant should immediately stop carrying out unfair competition such as false propaganda and confusion, and compensate the public for the economic loss of 500000 yuan.

Even so, public comments are not "winners" in the dispute. In terms of public comments, the person in charge told the 21st century economic report that similar "bill swiping" behaviors are highly hidden and difficult to obtain evidence, causing great harm to platforms, businesses and consumers. In 2020, the platform handled 33.69 million illegal evaluations, punished 45000 illegal merchants and 44000 users.

Grey market demand

Recently, Qingdao market supervision bureau of Shandong Province has also severely investigated and dealt with a case of "swiping orders and speculation letters" on the Internet, which has uncovered the black curtain that the units involved used illegal means to "brush high praise" and "raise stars" for the operators in the network platform and deceive and mislead consumers. At present, Qingdao municipal market supervision bureau has made an administrative penalty of 200000 yuan for the case.

The crazy phenomenon of bill brushing also widely exists in e-commerce and tourism platforms. According to our previous report, on Amazon's overseas platform, in the United States alone, there are tens of thousands of buyers who specialize in paying bills. Generally speaking, they attract Amazon's real users to place orders through QQ group, wechat group and other organizations, and then collect commissions and product fees from merchants by means of positive feedback and free evaluation.

In the wechat brush list group composed of several 500 people joined by reporters, there are constant demand and circulation of single brush staff every day. These products range from mobile phone case, charging line, hair dye to powder puff, jewelry box, swimming circle, etc.

Whether it is offline businesses or e-commerce sellers, the purpose of brush order is to improve the store score and ranking, so as to be in the top of the search ranking, so as to improve their exposure and bring sales. For the punishment of the platform, the seller's evasion means emerge in endlessly.

The 21st century economic reporter noticed that on the platforms of hungry, meituan takeout and pinduoduo, "positive feedback" has also become an important means for sellers to swipe letters. Generally, after users give favorable comments, businesses will return cash through wechat red packets and Alipay transfer.

"Evaluation is the cornerstone of public comments. We insist on providing users with authentic, credible and helpful evaluation, and resolutely resist and crack down on violations. We have always adopted a zero tolerance attitude towards false comments and black ash industrial chain. We will adopt civil litigation, administrative punishment, criminal attack and other means to promote the joint governance of government and enterprises, and maintain a good online consumption environment and order. " The relevant person in charge of the public comments said.

Why is it difficult to eliminate illegal production? Zhao Zhan, a special researcher at the intellectual property research center of China University of political science and law and a lawyer from Beijing Yunjia law firm, said in an interview with the 21st century economic report that the third-party service companies or businesses engaged in bill brushing not only damage the rights and interests of consumers, but also disrupt the normal market competition order, which directly violates the provisions of the administrative measures for online transactions, It is a typical unfair competition behavior. However, there is no direct regulation on whether the behavior of the main body who helps the operator to brush the bill belongs to unfair competition. In judicial practice, the amount of compensation awarded is usually not high.

As a matter of fact, behind the "scalping and speculation", there are also many Internet black ash industries, such as black logistics, illegal software, and personal information trafficking, which are harmful to the whole Internet and social integrity. In the final analysis, the way to put an end to illegal production must also rely on legislation to increase the cost of illegal activities.

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