The form of special supply liquor is becoming more “borderline” and has also increased the difficulty of management.
Recently, the State Administration for Market Regulation issued a notice to publicly solicit opinions on the “Announcement of the State Administration for Market Regulation on Strictly Prohibiting the Production and Sale of” Special Supply Liquor “(draft for soliciting opinions), which requires strict crackdown on alcohol products with similar content such as” special supply “,” special supply “,” internal supply “, party and government agencies, and the military. But the reporter noticed that the current form of special supply liquor is becoming more “marginal” and has also increased the difficulty of management.
In the announcement, the State Administration for Market Regulation stated that some illegal elements have recently falsely labeled or promoted specific names, symbols, iconic buildings, official activities, and other information closely related to party and government organs and the military, and produced and sold counterfeit and inferior alcoholic products such as “special supply”, “special supply”, and “domestic supply”.
In order to purify the market environment, the draft for soliciting opinions has taken measures to severely crack down on the internal supply of alcohol from six aspects: production, sales, catering operations, packaging design, publicity, and printing. It has also required market regulatory departments in various regions to strengthen inspections and severely investigate and punish those who violate regulations in accordance with the law; Those suspected of committing crimes shall be transferred to the public security organs.
The chaos of special liquor has been an old problem faced by the Baijiu industry. Since 2000, with the gradual prosperity of the Baijiu market, a variety of special and exclusive products are common in Baijiu channels. The relevant departments of the country have also issued multiple documents to crack down on the chaos of special supply liquor,
As early as March 2013, the State Administration and five other departments jointly issued a notice prohibiting the use, self production, or authorization of items labeled as “special supply” or “exclusive supply” by central and state organs, departments, and affiliated administrative institutions. In July 2022, the Logistics Support Department of the Central Military Commission and six other departments jointly issued a notice, clarifying that products with logos and words such as “special”, “reception”, “internal recruitment”, “military supply”, and “military special supply” sold online and offline are all illegal products.
But why has the chaos of special supply liquor not been completely eliminated?
Cai Xuefei, a Baijiu expert, told China Business News that behind the repeated prohibitions of special liquor, it seems that consumers have a mentality of taking advantage of and showing off. In fact, it is essentially the lag of liquor quality education, as well as the loopholes in the regulation of liquor product sales, which left many empty markets and opportunities for lawbreakers to exploit loopholes. Especially, special liquor is often sold in a very hidden group purchase. Recently, it has appeared in a large number of e-commerce channels, and because the sales channels are hidden and difficult to trace back, it is difficult for regulators to crack down. Moreover, in the folk market, there is indeed a certain market demand for special supply liquor, which has brought great difficulties to the cleaning of special supply liquor.
The reporter from First Financial News found that under the continuous cleaning by relevant departments, the sales channels of special supply liquor have become covert and are no longer solely targeted at government agencies, with some products turning to sideline routes.
The reporter saw on some e-commerce channels that some products have labels indicating special needs and exclusive supply, and are clearly marked as not for sale, but do not specify the target audience for special needs and exclusive supply; There are also some product labels that are specially used for national Baijiu judges to taste liquor and other famous brands.
Cai Xuefei said that some small and medium-sized Baijiu brands’ marginal behavior has brought new problems, such as some commemorative products, special customized products, etc., but it is hard to say whether they can be identified as illegal.
Xu Hao, a lawyer from Beijing Jingshi Law Firm, told China Business News that although some of the special offers and exclusive Baijiu offers were not specific, they still gave some hints to consumers and were suspected of constituting consumption fraud.