Digital Human Live-Streaming and Responsibility for Selling Counterfeit Goods

TapTechNews May 25th news, the topic "Who is responsible for digital human live-streaming to sell counterfeit goods" has gone viral on Weibo and once rushed into the top 10 of hot searches. By the time TapTechNews publishes this report, the related topic has already received 1.646 million reads.

It is known that as the 618 product promotion campaign approaches, many businesses began to use "digital humans" for live-streaming this year. Many consumers have raised questions such as "Who is actually selling the goods in the digital human anchor's live-streaming room" and "If there are problems with the after-sales of the goods, will the enterprise push the responsibility to the outsourced digital human technology company and pass the buck".

In this regard, Rao Wei, the deputy director of the Consumer Rights Professional Committee of the Beijing Lawyers Association and a senior partner of Beijing Tianchi JunTai Law Firm, said in response to the media Legal Daily:

The actual entity behind the "digital human" is the individual or company operating the digital account. These operators use the image of the digital human to sell goods, and in essence, they play the role of the seller. Therefore, the operator needs to take corresponding safety responsibilities for the product quality sold through the "digital human".

Rao Wei also said that if the relevant digital human anchor is actually a "digital human created based on the image of a real person", in this case, attention should be paid to the attitude of the real person towards the use of the digital human:

If the real person has clearly given permission to use their image and allowed a third party to operate or operate the sales activities by themselves, then the role of the real person is similar to that of an advertising spokesperson, and the relevant real person should conduct reasonable reviews of the products they endorse to ensure the reliability of the product quality.

If the real person still "endorses" when knowing or should know that there are problems with the product, then they need to bear joint and several liability together with the platform side and the operating side.