I. What legal risks does the mode of advance on demand have?

Despite consumer complaints, on-demand ahead is essentially a business strategy, not illegal. This is not what we are talking about. In the previous "Celebration of Life" lawsuit, the court also recognized the validity of the "on-demand ahead" clause in the member service agreement. Of course, this mode also has two legal risks: violation of the member service agreement between the platform and users, and infringement of consumers' independent choice.

1. Breach of member service agreement

The mode of "advance on Demand" was launched by Tencent Video during the broadcast of Chen Qing Ling in 2019. 3. After that, other long video platforms began to follow suit. Obviously, the platform did not and did not seek the consent of users before launching the "on-demand ahead" model.

In any other video platform and user "on demand" in advance of the dispute, the court has decided that: the user has by purchasing a member to obtain the corresponding rights and interests, platform, however, in the case of without the consent of the user to establish "pay advance on demand" clause, require users to pay extra rear can enjoy the original rights and interests, this is the original membership service to users loss of rights under this agreement, constitute a default.

2. Infringement of consumers' right of choice

In the early days of the "advance on Demand" mode, viewers could unlock the "advance on demand" mode by unit price, but Tencent Video went even further when the "Black Sweep" aired, requiring users to unlock the "advance on demand" episode by episode, which meant that users could not skip to the last episode to see the end, causing great dissatisfaction among users. Tencent Video was therefore named and criticized by Shanghai Consumer Protection Commission, which said that Tencent video's "on-demand ahead" rules do not allow users to choose the number of episodes they want to watch, depriving consumers of the right to choose.

II. The controversy over the screening ceremony of A Dream of Splendor

See the "A Dream of Splendor" activity rules of tencent video again: June 23 solstice on June 30, users can choose to buy gift bag in three different levels of activity, for the A Dream of Splendor finale viewing ceremony live (playback) watch securities, tencent video members, exclusive limited peripheral products, such as three bags are complimentary for a "A Dream of Splendor" 33-40 sets to watch the securities. The final eight episodes will be available as early as five days in advance, while regular VIP users will not be able to see episodes 33-40 updated on the show's web site during the advance.

From the form, the program design with the idiom "get the casket and return the pearl" to describe the more appropriate: What users need to pay extra is the live streaming of the final episode viewing ceremony, including the interactive activities of the leading actors and watching the episodes with the leading actors and other viewing ceremonies. In fact, the audience is not the most interested, but the so-called complimentary viewing coupons for episode 33-40 are the most needed by the audience, which is also the main purpose of Tencent Video to provide these gift packages. So it's still essentially a "pay-as-you-go" service, where even members pay extra to watch more episodes in advance.

III. Tencent video risk avoidance path

It can be seen that in order to make the activity rules of "A Dream of Splendor" not illegal, Tencent video or a little effort: in the name of gifts, line "ahead of on-demand" reality, equivalent to the design of a new "ahead of on-demand" rules. The purpose is to avoid the two legal risks of violating the user agreement and infringing the consumer's right of choice mentioned above. Let's take a look at Tencent Video's avoidance path:

First of all, advance on demand episodes do not mark VIP. Although episodes 33-40 of "A Dream of Splendor" can be viewed in advance through the on-demand viewing ceremony, the episode update page of "A Dream of Splendor" does not show that episodes 33-40 have been updated, let alone marked "VIP" like other VIP episodes.

Tencent Video's original "VIP privileges" include: 1. Pre-emptive viewing of content (popular TV dramas, cartoons and documentaries, etc., members can pre-emptive viewing of VIP episodes); 2. VIP free viewing (new movies, popular variety shows, popular TV dramas, popular cartoons, global documentaries, etc.) "Content watch first" and "VIP free to see" the premise must be "VIP content", leading on demand during the relevant episodes do not mark VIP this operation, remove the bottom, the two problems have been solved, so that users are difficult to accuse Tencent video of violating the original VIP privilege provisions.

Second, buying a point-and-click package is not a VIP privilege. In the on-demand viewing ceremony of A Dream of Splendor, users can get the content outside the series after paying for the gift package. The interactive activities of the leading actors and the accompanying watching of the series are all newly designed, so they are not included in the original VIP privileges.

Finally, advance - on - demand episodes are included as freebies in the on-demand package. The gift is a finishing touch. On the one hand, Tencent video can say that we did not restore advanced vod, and these episodes are only given as a gift to the users who buy the gift package. On the other hand, because of the advance on demand drama is a gift, it is certainly sent together, of course, there is no need to provide a single set of vod options, Shanghai consumer protection committee criticized the advance on demand drama episode by episode sales infringement of consumer choice problem is also solved.

Writing here, THE author has to admire Tencent Video: the advanced vod series as other products as a gift sale, and do not mark VIP, successfully achieved: 1, Charge more advanced voD fee; 2. Reduced rights of VIP users; 3, Also make the user miserable. The platform's ability to turn things around is just too strong.

But is it really not illegal to do so? In our opinion, the essence of the event is tie-in sales. What most users really want is not the purchase of the event, but the complimentary coupons for episodes 33-40 of A Dream of Splendor. This kind of operation takes advantage of the platform to bundle different products in ways that users cannot choose, change or reject, such as standard terms and necessary steps of operation, which infringes on consumers' independent choice and risks violating at least the following laws:

Article 9 of the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of The Rights and Interests of Consumers: Consumers have the right to independently choose commodities or services. Consumers shall have the right to independently choose the operators providing commodities or services, the type of commodities or the mode of services, and to decide whether to purchase any commodity or not and to accept or not to accept any service.

2. Article 19 of the E-commerce Law: When e-commerce operators sell commodities or services in combination, they should remind consumers in a prominent way that they are not allowed to take such commodities or services as an option of tacit consent.

Finally, the author understood, tencent launched video stick to advance "on demand" model is mainly because of its earnings, so regardless of the criticized and blamed by the user, taking the user is revealed after the drama even get pirated resources that are no longer buying from the platform service and even watch shows risk, also should try to launch various forms of advance "on demand" model. It is also hoped that the platform can more fully grasp the consumer experience and consumer psychology of users, and launch more reasonable service content under the premise of legal compliance.