Quanjian obtained the direct selling license issued by the Ministry of Commerce on 20 13. However, as a licensed formal enterprise, Quanjian has repeatedly fallen into disputes over pyramid schemes. Southern Reporter combed and counted 89 licensed direct selling enterprises in China from 2006 to 2065438+July, and found that there was more than one controversy.
Among the 89 direct selling enterprises, 22 enterprises "licensed with illness" under the background of pyramid schemes disputes, and 12 distributors of brand-related enterprises were prosecuted and sentenced for pyramid schemes; 35 companies are suspected of team compensation. In addition, there are problems such as cross-variety, cross-regional direct selling, false propaganda, and leasing licenses.
Direct selling enterprises have developed rapidly, with mixed advantages and disadvantages. How to further strengthen supervision and standardize the behavior of direct selling enterprises has become an urgent problem to be solved.
On August 10, 2005, the State Council promulgated the Regulations on the Administration of Direct Selling and the Regulations on the Prohibition of MLM. Since then, direct selling and pyramid selling, like twins, have appeared in the eyes of ordinary people and affected the economic life of hundreds of millions of people.
On February 22nd, 2006, the Ministry of Commerce issued the first direct selling license. According to the statistics of Southern Reporter, as of 20 17, 10, 9 1 companies have obtained direct sales qualification.
Among them, Ant Force God has gone bankrupt, and Dalian Zhen 'ao's direct sales license was revoked in 2006. At present, there are about 89 enterprises with direct selling qualification.
Over the past ten years, the direct selling industry has developed rapidly, and the scale and sales performance of the industry have improved rapidly, resulting in considerable economic and social benefits. At the same time, pyramid selling, which is only one word short of direct selling, is popular in some areas. Some direct selling companies even hold direct selling licenses and play the edge of pyramid schemes, which leads to violations of laws and regulations.
According to "China Judgment Document Network", "National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System" and media reports, Southern Reporter found that most of these licensed direct selling enterprises were "negatively entangled".
According to specific statistics, among the 89 direct selling enterprises, 12 enterprises or their distributors were prosecuted and sentenced for illegal pyramid selling, 2 1 enterprises were subject to administrative punishment for illegal acts, and 6 enterprises were punished overseas; 35 companies are suspected of team compensation, at least 32 are suspected of cross-regional illegal direct sales, and 22 are suspected of cross-variety illegal direct sales; 12 companies are suspected of false propaganda, 22 companies are suspected of "obtaining licenses with illness", 7 companies claim to have been fraudulently used, and 8 companies are suspected of illegally leasing licenses.
Among the 89 direct selling enterprises, 79 enterprises have been subjected to criminal punishment, administrative punishment or illegal acts exposed by the media, accounting for about 88.7% of the total number of direct selling enterprises. How to standardize the development of direct selling enterprises and operate in good faith has become a difficult problem for direct selling enterprises and related management departments.
According to the Regulations on Direct Selling Management, investors who apply to become direct selling enterprises must have a good business reputation and have no major illegal business records for five consecutive years before applying. However, the Regulations on the Administration of Direct Selling does not specify what is a "major violation of the law".
Dongsheng Ye Wei was repeatedly questioned by pyramid schemes before obtaining the direct selling license on 20 12.
In 2007, among the top ten pyramid selling cases notified by Liaoning Province, Dongsheng Ye Wei Tieling pyramid selling case ranked eighth. In 2008, among the top ten cases of cracking down on pyramid selling announced by Jiangxi Province, Shangrao Dongsheng Ye Wei pyramid selling case was also on the list. However, even if it was included in the annual Top Ten MLM in two provinces, it still failed to prevent Dongsheng Ye Wei from successfully obtaining a direct selling license four years later.
Southern Reporter's search found that there are at least 22 enterprises like Dongsheng Ye Wei who are suspected of "getting a certificate with illness", mostly 20 15 and 20 16. Of the 19 enterprises approved in 2065,438+05, 7 were exposed to pyramid schemes before they were licensed. Among the 20 16 batches of 15 enterprises, this figure is 6. 20 12 of the six direct selling enterprises approved by the Ministry of Commerce, three were suspected of "getting a certificate with illness"; In 20 13 and 20 14 years, there were 2 and 3 enterprises that got the certificate due to illness respectively.
Many enterprises or their distributors carry out pyramid selling in the name of direct selling license after obtaining the license. In 2006, Ant Force God, that is, Liaoning Ant Force God Tianxi Group Co., Ltd. obtained a direct sales license. However, the company went bankrupt immediately in 2007, and 55 people involved, including former chairman Wang Fengyou, were accused of contract fraud and other crimes.
According to the online judgment documents of China, at least 12 corporate distributors were sentenced by the court for leading and organizing pyramid schemes. Among them, there are many brands such as Longrich, New Health, Sun God, Kang Ding and Hualin.
In the case of illegal pyramid selling by Longliqi dealers, Longliqi dealer Zhang organized the development of offline members 19386, with pyramid selling funds reaching hundreds of millions of yuan, and the amount of illegal rebate was RMB 29.09 million. Although the organization is developed for dealers, Longrich Company is everywhere. According to media reports, the products in this case were produced by Langli Company, and the rebates and bonuses of MLM members were paid by Langli Company, while the rebates and bonuses of 22 MLM members were paid by Langli Company.
It is clearly pointed out in the Regulations on Prohibition of MLM that organizers or operators seek illegal benefits by asking the developed personnel to send other personnel to join, and calculating and paying remuneration (including material rewards and other economic benefits) to the developed personnel based on the number of directly or indirectly developed personnel, which belongs to illegal pyramid schemes.
However, in the direct selling industry, the incentive model of "team compensation" is widespread. Team salary is also called "multi-level salary" and "leapfrog commission", that is, online sales can get commission from the sales income of developing their own offline salesmen.
Hu Yuanjiang, executive director of china health care association Direct Selling Committee, pointed out that China's direct selling industry has only opened up single-level direct selling, but most international direct selling enterprises operate and promote the market according to the principle of multi-level direct selling, so there is a phenomenon of "two layers of skin" in the legal and practical operation of China's direct selling industry.
Southern reporters found through public reports that among 89 enterprises with direct selling licenses, at least 35 enterprises were exposed or reported, claiming that they were suspected of team remuneration, and the violation rate was as high as 39%. These include direct selling brands, such as Meilin Kai, Sun God and Infinitus.
The threshold for issuing direct selling licenses is high and resources are scarce. Some MLM gangs started their activities under the guise of "impersonation" of direct selling companies; Even licensed enterprises have started the business of "leasing licenses" and cooperated with other enterprises in violation of regulations to provide "convenience" for illegal pyramid schemes.
Li Kang, Guangdong, once rented a rare direct selling license as "pork" to a number of enterprises involved in communication, and collected rent or cooperation fees from these unlicensed black households.
In the case of "e-Pay MLM", Li Kang authorized Qingdao Dongfang Yijia Company as its direct selling shop, and Dongfang Yijia paid Li Kang a monthly fee ranging from 300,000 yuan to 500,000 yuan, then claimed to be a powerful direct selling company and started the MLM business. At the time of the crime, there were more than 10 development members and 1000 members in the "e-Pay MLM case". In addition, in the pyramid schemes of "Li Kang Duo Duo" and "Sunflower" systems, the partners used the direct selling license of Li Kang to conduct illegal pyramid schemes.
According to the Regulations on Direct Selling Management, direct selling enterprises are not allowed to carry out direct selling business in areas that have not been audited and announced; Products that have not been audited and published shall not be sold by direct selling enterprises.
In practice, cross-regional and cross-species illegal operations abound. Some direct selling companies ignore laws and regulations, and in order to improve their performance, they mislead consumers and carry out direct selling activities in violation of regulations by blurring the scope of direct selling areas and direct selling varieties.
In addition, due to the particularity of the direct selling industry, the main sales channel of direct selling enterprises is direct sellers, which inevitably leads to frequent personnel flow and cross-regional contact. Therefore, it is also prone to the phenomenon of cross-regional operation. Over time, this non-compliant behavior has evolved into an industry unspoken rule.
According to the statistics of Southern Reporter, among the 89 licensed enterprises, there are 32 enterprises suspected of cross-regional illegal direct sales, with a violation rate as high as 35.9%; There are 22 enterprises suspected of illegal direct selling across varieties, with a violation rate of 24.7%.
In addition, licensed direct selling companies mainly promote cosmetics and health care products. There are many exaggerations and false images in foreign propaganda. Ridiculous slogans such as "sanitary napkins claim to cure prostatitis and insoles cure all diseases" have never been broken.
2065438+July 2006, the media reported that "the terminally ill girl who lost the lawsuit, who will make false propaganda for Quanjian?" The article reports that Zhou Xiaoyang, a 4-year-old girl with malignant tumor, was introduced to take drugs from Quanjian Company after receiving surgery and chemotherapy in a big hospital and all indicators were normal. Finally, the child's condition deteriorated and he died unfortunately. Afterwards, a large number of pictures and texts appeared on the Internet saying that Zhou Xiaoyang was cured, with a group photo of the child, his parents and the person in charge of the whole health. On June 5438+ 10 in the same year, state administration of traditional chinese medicine informed Quanjian about the false and illegal advertisements of traditional Chinese medicine.
In 20 17, Li Jiakang was punished by Chaoyang Branch of Beijing Administration for Industry and Commerce for illegal direct selling, with the sales income of about19.85 million yuan confiscated and a fine of 500,000 yuan. It is reported that the parties held a national fitness miles meeting, exaggerating the efficacy of the product: "Diabetes is good, cancer is good, psoriasis is good. Our vitality has a magical effect, which can protect and repair our damaged DNA, which is a miracle of mankind.
According to the statistics of Southern Reporter, at least 12 of 89 enterprises are suspected of false propaganda.
Recently, the medical doctor bombarded Quanjian Group, a licensed direct selling company, from the media, questioning the company's fire treatment injury, delayed illness of health care products, and the company's operation mode suspected of pyramid schemes.
Subsequently, the regulatory authorities responded one after another.
On the afternoon of February 26th, 65438+ Tianjin wuqing district Market and Quality Supervision Administration replied to Nandu reporter that the incident had been investigated. On February 27th, 65438, a joint investigation team organized by Tianjin Municipal Market Supervision Committee and other departments entered Quanjian Group to conduct an investigation. On the 28th, the investigation team claimed that "after preliminary verification, some products of Tianjin Quanjian Company were suspected of exaggerating publicity. The follow-up investigation is still in progress. "
According to the Regulations on the Administration of Direct Selling issued in 2005, the competent commercial departments and administrative departments for industry and commerce in the State Council are responsible for the supervision and management of direct selling enterprises, direct sellers and their direct selling activities. The competent department of commerce in the State Council is responsible for issuing direct selling licenses, and the administrative department for industry and commerce is responsible for the daily supervision and management of direct selling enterprises, direct sellers and their direct selling activities.
Since the implementation of the direct selling market access mechanism in 2005, the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Public Security have successively formulated and issued four departmental regulations, four announcements and more than 10 normative documents, further establishing and perfecting the legal system of direct selling supervision.
In daily supervision, in addition to checking and formulating norms and standards, the industrial and commercial departments mainly adopt various punishment methods such as administrative interviews, reminders, ordering rectification, confiscation of illegal income, and administrative fines. The news that the industrial and commercial departments investigate and deal with illegal direct selling is also constantly seen in newspapers.
As early as 20 12, Yangzhou Industrial and Commercial Bureau interviewed eight direct selling enterprises, including Perfect, Mary Kay, Sansheng, Infinitus, Zhongmai and Li Kang, to supervise direct selling. 20 15, 1 1, Green Rhyme products were named and exposed by People's Daily in Shanxi. After the publication of the report, the relevant departments attached great importance to it, and the State Administration for Industry and Commerce immediately interviewed the main person in charge of Luyun Company.
Direct selling companies are mixed, and violations are repeatedly prohibited. How to further strengthen the supervision of direct selling and standardize the business behavior of direct selling enterprises has become an urgent problem for the regulatory authorities. Some experts believe that to change this situation, we need the joint efforts of the government, industry and enterprises, and finally form a * * * governance mechanism of joint punishment by regulatory authorities, self-inspection and self-discipline by direct selling enterprises and public supervision and reporting, and regulate it from the laws and regulations with the nature of "industry program".
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