On October 24th, the topic “JD Procurement Calls Out Li Jiaqi” trended on Weibo. Li Jiaqi, who has faced controversies due to his fame, was recently accused of price manipulation and stock control. It is claimed that he signed a “minimum price agreement” with brands, raising suspicions of monopoly and coercing merchants. Both Li Jiaqi and the involved brands denied the existence of such an agreement, refuting these claims as false information. However, media later revealed details from Li Jiaqi’s company, Mei ONE’s contract, which stated that “if prices from other channels exceed those in the live stream, a compensation of 2 million yuan is required.”
On October 24th, domestic media reported that JD Procurement staff publicly called out Li Jiaqi on their social circles for making brands “choose one side”. The staff stated that JD received a legal notice from the Hauswirt brand. The brand claimed that JD’s price for a specific Hauswirt oven was lower than Li Jiaqi’s live stream price, violating their “minimum price agreement” with him and demanding substantial breach-of-contract compensation.
Simultaneously, on the evening of the 24th, during the live stream of “Crazy Little Yang Brother”, Big Yang mentioned that Li Jiaqi manipulated prices and controlled inventory, leading to many popular brands being removed from Little Yang’s live stream. According to Big Yang, if a merchant has 100 units in stock and Li Jiaqi sells 70-80 of them, the merchant has to cooperate with him. By selling more, he gains power and coerces the merchants. He added, “Some platforms are also helpless about this.” Little Yang said that some brands, which were priced lower than Li Jiaqi’s, couldn’t be sold and had to be removed. Li Jiaqi, known as the top live streamer in Mainland China, boasts nearly 30 million followers on Weibo, and each of his live streams generates staggering sales figures.
In response, Li Jiaqi’s company, Mei ONE, told the media that there was no such “minimum price agreement” with the Hauswirt brand. Li Jiaqi’s live stream has never asked brands to “pick one side”, emphasizing that the power to set prices lies with the brand. Meanwhile, Hauswirt issued a statement saying they didn’t sign any “minimum price agreement” as claimed by the procurement staff. They clarified that their request to JD to change the price was to match the lowest price across the entire web.
However, domestic media “Sina Tech” disclosed a “Mei ONE Live Stream Promotion Service Contract” on the same day. The contract stated that brands must ensure that the value of the gifts provided is the highest under equivalent conditions within the guarantee period. During the guarantee period, brands need to ensure that the promotional efforts provided under the promotion services agreed upon by both parties in this contract have the maximum force under equivalent conditions within the guarantee period. If they breach the agreement, brands need to refund consumers five times the price difference and pay Mei ONE a penalty of 2 million yuan, bearing all costs and losses resulting from the refund.
Furthermore, the contract specifies that within the guarantee period, brands must ensure that the final transaction price of the promotional object corresponding to all promotion services provided through the designated influencers is the lowest price within the guaranteed range.
Online reactions to this issue are polarized. Some netizens believe that the scale reached by Li Jiaqi involves monopoly and unfair competition, affecting market order. Others feel that the dispute between Li Jiaqi and another live streamer, Big Yang, over price and stock control and coercing merchants, is merely a live stream interest conflict. They commented, “Who isn’t jealous of Li Jiaqi on the pedestal?”