A cross-border e-commerce training company was fined 600,000 yuan for alleged false advertising

Recently, the market supervision department of Chengdu, Sichuan Province, released a number of typical cases of illegal advertising. Among them was the illegal advertising case of Sichuan Yunjie Cross-border E-commerce Service Co., Ltd. The company was fined 600,000 yuan for suspected false advertising.

Suspected of false advertising, the training company was fined 600,000 yuan

Public information shows that Sichuan Yunjie Cross-border E-commerce Service Co., Ltd. is mainly engaged in cross-border e-commerce training and education. Its core team members have experience in operating top 30 stores in categories on large e-commerce platforms such as Shopee and Amazon . The business scope includes cross-border certification store opening, online store decoration, source selection, operation software, marketing promotion, short video production and platform live broadcast, etc. Full-process online store operation training.

The company's promotional materials state that the cross-border e-commerce training courses it developed are tailored for the practical operations of large e-commerce platforms such as Amazon, Shopee, Wish, and Vova. The original series of courses + technical services + mentor guidance model can help novice students quickly open stores and place orders , and help advanced students increase the scale of store orders.

But it is such a company that has recently been subject to administrative penalties.

The administrative penalty notice of Jinjiang Market Administration shows that in June 2021, Jinjiang Market Administration received a complaint against the company. In the same month, Jinjiang Market Administration filed a case against the company for suspected false advertising.

After investigation, Sichuan Yunjie Cross-border E-commerce Service Co., Ltd. placed 14 video advertisements on multiple short video platforms for promotion through self-shooting and shooting on advertising platforms .

It is understood that some of the company's video advertisements contain advertising slogans such as "guaranteed to teach", "get started in 3 days", "low investment and quick returns", etc., which violate the "Advertising Law of the People's Republic of China" which prohibits explicit or implicit guarantees on the effectiveness of education and training, and there is an imbalance between its "one-on-one service" and "one-on-one tutor" publicity and services, and are suspected of false advertising.

Finally, in March 2022, the Jinjiang Market Administration ordered Sichuan Yunjie Cross-border E-commerce Service Co., Ltd. to stop publishing illegal advertisements and imposed an administrative penalty of 600,000 yuan.

Taking advantage of information gap, training companies make profits for themselves

In addition to violating advertising laws , the editor found through multiple inquiries that the company also had problems with its courses and services.

Through the query on the official website of Heimao Complaint, it can be found that the number of complaints about "Yunjie Cross-border E-commerce" on the platform has reached 104, and the most recent complaint occurred on March 30.

By reviewing complaint cases over the past six months, we can find that the main issues users complain about include false /misleading advertising, customer service not handling the matter, inability to contact customer service, failure to fulfill contracts, and fraud.

Some users complained that Yunjie Cross-border E-commerce claimed to cooperate with Shopee platform and could provide VIP green channel for opening stores. Its instructor also said that it usually takes 30-45 days to apply for a store, but it can be opened in 5 days through the green channel. However, some users later verified with Shopee officials and found that the company did not have a cooperative relationship with Shopee, nor did it have the so-called green channel . It only took 5 working days to apply for a Shopee store through the official.

When the editor consulted Shopee about this matter, its staff said that there was no cooperative relationship with the company . Shopee’s official website has a list of formal cooperative institutions, and users can confirm the authenticity through the official website list.

Many users also complained that most of the course video content of Yunjie Cross-border E-commerce is from the Shopee platform. It claims to give away expensive software and tools, but the company ultimately provides either free software tools or requires users to buy them. In addition, the company claims that a set of information can open up to 33 stores, but Shopee itself has its own Sip service. As long as the Taiwan site is opened and the conditions are met, all the sites and stores in Southeast Asia can be opened with one click.

In addition to courses, some users also reported that many of the services it advertised and promised did not match the actual situation. For example, the "one-on-one teaching" it advertised was actually one-on-one student training, and the promised 100,000 additional traffic to students was delayed for various reasons; the promised product diagnosis, store decoration and other services were also not delivered. Many users also reported that after paying the fee, the service attitude changed significantly, it was difficult to contact the teacher and customer service, and the refund process was not smooth .

One user concluded that Yunjie Cross-border E-commerce took advantage of Shopee's official content and information asymmetry to promote itself and make profits.

In fact, this can be seen from the content of user complaints. Most of the complaining users are "outsiders" who don't know much about cross-border e-commerce or even the e-commerce industry. Such people are more likely to make irrational decisions when faced with tempting publicity.

In addition to problems with publicity and services, the company's operating status is also abnormal. According to Qichacha, on March 9, 2022, the company was included in the list of abnormal operations because the relevant agencies could not contact it through its registered residence or business premises, and it has not been removed yet. As early as January 29, 2021, the company was included in the list of abnormal operations by the Jinjiang Market Supervision Administration because it could not be contacted, and was removed on April 8, 2021.

The training industry is in chaos, and unscrupulous institutions are harvesting novice sellers

In recent years, with the rapid development of the cross-border e-commerce market, a large number of new sellers have entered the cross-border e-commerce industry, and topics related to cross-border e-commerce have continued to go viral, creating many myths of cross-border e-commerce getting rich overnight. However, this has also led to the barbaric growth of the training industry. Many unscrupulous training institutions have fished in troubled waters in this environment and wielded the sickle of harvest at every link. The reputation of the entire training industry has also been affected, and some compliant and law-abiding training institutions have also been affected.

In the propaganda of these training institutions , cross-border e-commerce is usually described as an industry with low entry barriers and guaranteed profits, and students are promised various discounts and nanny-like services. It seems that as long as you choose the right direction, you can make money without doing anything.

In fact, the tactics used by these training institutions to cheat novice sellers are not sophisticated, but due to the different levels of development of the cross-border e-commerce industry in my country's coastal and inland areas, there are still some novice sellers who will be cheated by unscrupulous institutions in some provinces where cross-border e-commerce is not yet mature.

For new sellers who want to enter the cross-border e-commerce industry, it is understandable to choose a training company with a learning mentality. However, the cross-border e-commerce training industry is currently in a state of chaos, and the courses and services provided by various training institutions are also uneven. Before registering and paying fees, sellers must fully understand the company's qualifications and operating conditions to avoid unnecessary losses.

Cross-border e-commerce

Training Company

False advertising