The short-video and livestreaming app said it has cleared 43,000 influencers and 793 sellers that have violated the rules from its platform.
Douyin announced the above on its Douyin E-commerce Security and Trust Center on Monday (Oct 20).
“In the past three months, while conducting inspections, the platform found that some merchants and influencers have made used of consumers’ ‘health anxiety’ and repackaged general foods into ‘health products or foods for special medical purposes (FSMP)’, or have exaggerated the use of blue hat health foods to include medical efficacy etc. The platform has since embarked on a special management program to protect consumers’ shopping experience,” said Douyin.
In China, food and health products are not allowed to make marketing claims related to disease prevention, treatment, and should state that they are not a replacement for medicines.
Based on the examples provided by Douyin, unsupported and exaggerated weight loss claims were some of the main issues found.
One example involved both the merchant and influencers promoting general food products as being able to “increase metabolism; weight loss for the entire body” in the comments section during their livestreaming session.
They also sought to direct Douyin users to their livestreaming room by circulating short videos making exaggerated product claims.
Douyin said it has cleared the influencers from its platform and have confiscated their commission. The merchant was also cleared from the platform, and their funds frozen.
Livestreaming sales prevalent in China
Selling of products via livestreaming is prevalent China. Douyin, in particular, is outpacing traditional e-commerce platforms.
GNC China, for instance, said that 38.8% of its sales came from Douyin last year - only behind Alibaba Tmall’s 40.3% and ahead of JD Health’s 20.9%. This was a stark contrast from 2022, when Douyin only accounted for 18.9% of its online health supplements sales, with the majority coming from Tmall (59.6%).
Blue-hat products, herbal tea implicated
Aside from general foods, there were also cases of merchants and influencers claiming their blue-hat health foods as being able to produce quick weight loss effects when answering consumers’ queries.
In this case, the merchant and influencers claimed that consumers could expect to lose 3kg to 8kg of weight by consuming two boxes of their product, and claiming that there would “absolutely be no rebound in weight.”
Blue-hat health foods are supplements that have been assessed and approved by the State Administration of Market Regulation (SAMR) either by product registration or filing.
These products can make specific health claims and can be sold within China’s offline retail and domestic e-commerce channels. Health supplements that have not received blue-hat approvals can only enter the China market via cross-border e-commerce (CBEC).
Similarly, Douyin said it has cleared both the influencers and merchants involved from the platform, confiscated their commission and frozen their funds.
Goji berry tea, vitamins, health supplements were the other examples where merchants and influencers have made unsupported aphrodisiac claims.
