Dong-E E-Jiao fined ¥110,000 for telling children to eat e-jiao on a livestream

Dong-E E-Jiao, the state-backed maker of the prized donkey-hide gelatin tonic, pushed its products through Douyin livestreams at the height of its health-gift marketing. In those broadcasts its e-commerce arm told viewers that its e-jiao could be eaten by 'men and women, children over six, children who are growing, who are short or thin'.

The claim cut straight across the product's own label: the 阿胶片 health food was marked as unsuitable for children and adolescents, and the company could not produce any scientific basis for a food version being right for children over six. In the same broadcasts the host said e-jiao 'boosts our immunity', but the ad was delivered as voice plus video while the approved health-food ad category was text-only, and it had never been reviewed as required.

A third violation was a price fiction. On 8 May 2023 the host pitched the 阿胶糕 by warning that 'after Mother's Day, it will go back to ¥345', yet for more than a month afterwards no unit of the product ever sold at ¥345. The regulator read it as using a false or misleading price to lure people into buying.

On 15 January 2024 the Beijing Chaoyang District Market Supervision Administration fined the company ¥110,000, ordered it to correct the conduct and eliminate the impact. The penalty landed against a backdrop the same article highlights: the brand's selling expenses hit ¥1.319bn in the first three quarters of 2023, 38.48% of revenue, while its R&D spend fell for four straight years.