"Here we can realize the freedom of eating meat"

"It only takes 198 to fill a table. Aren't you excited?"

……

Have you heard these words anywhere? I believe many people have brushed similar promotional videos on the short video platform. With the rapid development of the Internet, the new media advertising industry has become popular. A large number of newly opened businesses will hire professionals to shoot food and beverage promotion videos, but the question arises. Are these ubiquitous store exploring videos the sharing of real experience, or are they advertising in the marketing guise?

In April 2024, the People's Procuratorate of Shitai County found in the case handling that there were "store spotters" in the jurisdiction who released videos on the Tiaoyin platform as ordinary consumers, shared and evaluated the food tastes and service levels of several catering stores, and attached shopping links below the videos, but did not clearly mark the words "advertising" in the videos. Some consumers commented that after purchase, they found that the food quality of the stores involved was substandard, and the actual price was inconsistent with the price of the promotion video. These advertisements infringe upon consumers' right to know and damage social and public interests.

According to Article 9 of the Measures for the Administration of Internet Advertising, if goods or services are promoted through knowledge introduction, experience sharing, consumption evaluation and other forms, and purchase methods such as shopping links are attached, the advertisement publisher shall clearly mark the words "advertising".

After finding the clue of the case, the People's Procuratorate of Shitai County filed the case with the administrative public interest litigation, and then carried out the "online+offline" investigation. After fixing the relevant evidence, the People's Procuratorate inquired about the legal provisions, and discussed with the relevant functional departments. According to the results of the investigation, we will make and issue procuratorial suggestions to the advertising supervision and management department, suggest that they perform their duties according to law, and order the advertisement publishers involved in the case to correct according to law. At the same time, we will regularly check the illegal behaviors related to food and beverage promotion videos in the jurisdiction, standardize the behaviors such as "store talent", strengthen the application of "advertising" signs, investigate and deal with them in a timely manner, and further strengthen the supervision and management of Internet advertising publishers in the jurisdiction.

In order to carry out the public interest litigation work of food safety inspection in the new online business, the Procuratorate of Shitai County has fully performed its duties according to law, strengthened the judicial guarantee of people's livelihood, and carefully handled people's livelihood cases with passion. The relevant person in charge of the People's Procuratorate of Shitai County said that he would continue to follow up the rectification of the problems, cooperate with the administrative authorities, promote the Internet advertising practitioners and publishers within the jurisdiction to carry out legal and compliant marketing campaigns, effectively protect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers, and create a clean and healthy social atmosphere.

Prosecutor Reminder

The Internet is not illegal. At present, advertisements that exaggerate propaganda, induce consumption, and do not match the goods to different degrees exist in our life. According to the relevant provisions of the Advertising Law of the People's Republic of China and the Measures for the Administration of Internet Advertising, advertisement publishers should express true and legal advertising content in a healthy form, and should not be mixed with false or misleading content. Therefore, when facing the promotion of various "store experts" on the network platform, we should always maintain a calm and rational view of consumption, carefully screen the authenticity of promotional videos, avoid impulse consumption induced by marketing advertising because of "following the trend" and trust psychology, avoid changing from "planting grass" to "stepping on the pit", and effectively safeguard their legitimate rights and interests.