"Australia YouSiYi" is actually domestically produced, and platform review has become a major loophole | Beijing News Quick Commentary

Ask AI: What blind spots exist in the review mechanisms of e-commerce platforms in cross-border health supplement sales?

▲This “Australian YouSiYi” blueberry lutein capsule claims the company’s address in Melbourne. Photo/CCTV News

The leading lutein brand on e-commerce platforms by sales, “Australian YouSiYi,” claims its place of origin as Australia. However, some consumers reported that “only after it arrived did I find out it is domestically produced,” and they also shared screenshots of traceability information for the imported goods. The translated company name is “Xianle Health Technology (Anhui) Co., Ltd.” In response, the platform told the consumers that “it is an Australian brand, but it is produced domestically.”

After traveling to multiple places to investigate, CCTV reporters went to the Australian company address stated for this product—Unit 28, Building 1-5, Dingley Lake Road, Melbourne—and found that there was no so-called health supplement production factory there, only an auto repair shop.

Based on media reports, YouSiYi’s “Australian” identity appears questionable. Once this scheme succeeds, the key lies in two points where the system goes off track and fails.

First, some marketing companies pursue commercial interests excessively while lacking marketing ethics.

The investigation found that for “YouSiYi” and similar brands to become “hit products,” it is inseparable from “endorsement,” “grassroots seeding,” and “traffic boosting” packaging manipulated by certain “imported” health supplement outsourcing operation companies.

These outsourcing operation companies obviously take a share of the profits along the chain, but their fake marketing harms consumers’ trust in health supplement products and also disrupts order in the health supplement market.

Second, the inadequacy of the platform review mechanism. This is also the crux of the sales chain for “imported health supplement” products.

When faced with questions about the place of origin, the staff of the Chinese operator of “Australian YouSiYi” dodged and diverted from the questions. And based on the reports, it still remains unclear whether e-commerce platforms have information about the production location and the producer of the relevant products.

Pursuant to regulations such as the E-commerce Law, e-commerce platform operators should require the operators they onboard to submit true information such as their addresses, conduct verification and registration, and regularly re-verify and update the information. Otherwise, if relevant measures are not taken and consumers are harmed, liability must be borne jointly in accordance with the law.

In cross-border industrial supply chains, consumers face an information gap regarding products, and the regulatory responsibility of e-commerce platforms is especially important—it cannot be avoided.

It’s an old trick for domestic health supplements to pose as imported goods. The question is: after repeated exposure and the dense rollout of new rules by relevant platforms, why haven’t such problems disappeared?

The “Australian YouSiYi” incident is not a one-off case, but a microcosm of disorder in the health supplement market. Regulatory authorities need to strengthen supervision of the health supplement market, platforms need to enhance content review and consumer complaint handling mechanisms, and multiple measures must be taken together—only then can healthy industry development be promoted.

Written by / Xin He (Media Person)

Edited by / Ma Xiaolong

Proofread by / Yang Li