More than a year later, the once-disappearing "Starbucks online store" reappeared. Do you dare to drink it?

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At the end of August and the beginning of September last year, the fake Starbucks store storm on online ordering platforms such as ele.me and Meituan takeout made many consumers sweat. Starbucks China publicly dismissed rumors at the time that it had no formal business cooperation with any third-party food ordering platform. Since then, the relevant online food ordering platform has quietly removed the relevant stores.

However, more than a year later, many consumers reported to the Jiefang Daily that the "Starbucks online store" that once disappeared appeared again recently.

Several Starbucks on Meituan takeout

Claims it has nothing to do with Starbucks, but still attracts eyes with related elements.

On the afternoon of October 11, the reporter logged on to online food ordering platforms such as ele.me and Meituan takeout and searched for "Starbucks" at an intersection and found that 15 online merchants with "Starbucks" in their names appeared on ele.me. There are 4 such merchants on Meituan takeout. Some merchants offer more attractive discounts than brick-and-mortar stores. "Starbucks coffee purchasing agent (Century Avenue New District)" says "full 45 minus 6, full 88 minus 12, full 130 minus 20" and "5% discount on hot cakes". Even 4 yuan plus an additional product such as cream or syrup, which can also be reduced by 0.2 yuan.

Some purchasing agents offer better discounts than brick-and-mortar stores.

The reporter noticed that unlike more than a year ago, in order to avoid the risk of infringement, these merchants did not blatantly use Starbucks trademarks directly, nor did they label themselves as "Starbucks" affiliated stores. Most of them accept orders online under the names of "Starbucks purchasing agents" and "Starbucks coffee purchasing agents", and all mark on their own pages that "all business activities have nothing to do with Starbucks".

Although they try their best to distance themselves from Starbucks, some merchants are still using Starbucks elements to make up their appearance and attract orders. For example, although the "Starbucks coffee purchasing agent (SH one store)" on Meituan takeout claims that "the commercial behavior of takeout has nothing to do with Starbucks", the actual business address marked on the merchant's page is the Starbucks Xinhua Road store, and the scene photos and food business license number also belong to the store, giving many consumers the illusion that this purchasing agent is the Starbucks Road store. In this way, the merchant has a large number of orders. Meituan takeout platform shows that the merchant sells 9015 orders every month.

The information marked by this purchasing agent can easily lead people to think that it is Starbucks Chuansha Jinhui Plaza store.

Then look at the business license and food business license announced by the merchant, and his identity is revealed (if these licenses are not fake). It is unexpectedly a high-tech development limited company as far away as Tianjin Free Trade Experimental Zone. The business project is "prepackaged food sales (excluding frozen food)", which has nothing to do with the current sale of beverages.

Enterprises as far away as Tianjin come to Shanghai to act as purchasing agents for Starbucks.

On October 11, Starbucks China once again told Jiefang Daily that so far, Starbucks has not launched a formal business cooperation with any third-party delivery service platform in China.

For cases where some online merchants on the platform claim that they have nothing to do with Starbucks, but are actually using Starbucks-related elements, a Starbucks insider told reporters that the company will explore whether this behavior constitutes an infringement on Starbucks, and the possibility of legal action cannot be ruled out.

There is a gap in the supervision of food purchasing agents on the online platform, which hides risks.

Despite the entanglements between Starbucks and daigou, many people in the industry are more worried that these "food purchasing agents" on the online food ordering platform may cause food safety risks.

A person in the industry who runs a beverage store said that Starbucks rejected takeout to a large extent to control food safety risks. After all, food purchasing agents not only facilitate buyers, but also add a link between manufacturers and consumers. Once this link is too long and the hygiene condition of the food environment is poor, it is likely to pollute the food and even affect the health of consumers.

The person admitted that he does not rule out the possibility that some daigou may, for the sake of convenience, buy a batch of Starbucks' best-selling goods in advance and store them, and deliver the goods as soon as the order comes. In this case, some goods are stored for a long time and the possibility of contamination is magnified. To make matters worse, individual purchasing agents do not rule out the possibility of making or purchasing fake Starbucks goods for profit, which is difficult for consumers to identify only by outer packaging, which is even more risky for food safety. Once consumers are not feeling well after eating, there will be the problem that the responsibility is difficult to identify.

Since the risk is not small, can regulators take strong regulatory measures on the behavior of food purchasing agents on the online platform? The answer is not yet.

The reporter asked a number of market regulators, and were told that these food purchasing agents, which appear on the online food ordering platform, belong to a kind of service, rather than selling goods directly, and it is inevitable that it is a bit far-fetched to ask the purchasing agents to apply for food business licenses like food sellers. At present, it is difficult to find out the current laws and regulations that can be directly applied to food purchasing agents on the online platform, which belongs to a blank zone.

Purchasing agent license information is contradictory, suspected of forgery, card collection?

However, some operators are "smart and misguided". Although there is no clear stipulation that food purchasing agents on the online platform must hold relevant licenses before they can operate, some of them are suspected of "emergency" in order to pass the qualification examination of the online food ordering platform, there is a suspicion of falsifying or applying the licenses of other food producers and operators.

On ele.me, Starbucks, which has the largest number of "stores", is the operator of a self-proclaimed "black hand-Starbucks daigou store". With the intersection selected by the reporter as the coordinate, seven "black hand-Starbucks daigou stores" can be searched. The reporter called the uniformly marked customer service number of these stores, but was told that the operator was as far away as Hangzhou and was registered in the local Hangzhou Blackhand Technology Co., Ltd.

The customer service phone number and registration place of "Black hand-Starbucks purchasing agency store" are all in Hangzhou.

The customer service phone number and registration place of "Black hand-Starbucks purchasing agency store" are all in Hangzhou.

However, it is strange that the reporter looked at the food business licenses announced by the seven "black hands-Starbucks purchasing stores" one by one, and the operators shown above were not in Hangzhou. There are 5 Pudong branches of Shanghai Pudong Trading Co., Ltd., which is located in Room 104, floor 1, 35 Nanquan North Road, Baoshan District, and 2 are Shanghai Nessa Restaurant Management Co., Ltd., located at 39 Nanwei Road, Baoshan District.

This enterprise on Nanquan North Road does not necessarily know that it is doing Starbucks purchasing agency business.

Whether to forge or apply the licenses of other food producers and operators has yet to be further investigated by the regulatory authorities, and if verified, the relevant units will be subject to legal sanctions. Li Han, a senior partner at Shanghai Hansheng Law firm, said that if it is found that the relevant enterprises have forged food business licenses, the enterprise is suspected of violating the Criminal Law, forging, altering, buying and selling state organ certificates, the public security organ will investigate the party concerned for criminal responsibility. Last year, there were similar cases in Xiamen.

In addition, the negligent online food ordering platform will also bear the corresponding responsibility. Li Gong pointed out that according to the Shanghai Food Safety regulations, if the provider of a third-party platform for online food trading fails to examine the license of the food operator entering the network, the regulatory department may order it to correct, confiscate the illegal income, and impose a fine of not less than 50, 000 yuan and not more than 200000 yuan.

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