º¬Ðß²ÝÉçÇø

Livestream e-commerce has become a leading form of online business in recent years, and a go-to channel for both product sales and entertainment consumption. With growth of the collectibles market, a new format of livestream e-commerce known as ¡°live card unboxing¡± has emerged around Pokemon cards, sports trading cards and other IP-related collectibles.

Because the unboxing process is shown in real time and the outcome is random while combining entertainment and interaction, this has quickly gained enthusiastic traction among collectors.

However, compared with conventional retail, live card unboxing often combines merchandise transactions with a randomised mechanism. From a legal perspective, this may raise issues around livestream activity regulation, online transaction compliance, and gambling-like risks.

Against this backdrop, this series analyses the compliance boundaries for live card unboxing in two parts. Part 1 outlines the general regulatory requirements for online livestream activities, introducing the basic nature of live card unboxing and common formats.

Part 2, to follow, further analyses the main legal risks and discusses practical compliance advice for the business.

General livestream compliance

Regulators have developed a multi-layer framework for supervising online livestream activities. Livestreams typically involve multiple parties including the livestream platform, streamer or MCN agency, and merchant.

Where product sales are conducted through livestreaming, the relevant parties must comply not only with platform rules, but also with China¡¯s regulatory requirements on online transactions, among other areas.

Entity qualifications and platform governance. Online livestream activities must comply with article 7 of the Administrative Provisions on Internet Live Streaming Services. This requires livestream service providers to verify the real identity of content publishers, establish content management systems, and take timely action against illegal or non-compliant content.

As a result, streamers and relevant merchants are typically required to complete real name verification on the platform and conduct commercial activities in line with platform rules.

When a livestream involves product sales, its legal nature is usually treated as an online transaction. Under article 32 of the Measures for the Supervision and Administration of Livestreaming Ecommerce, the livestream room operator must prominently display the product name, price and pricing unit, or the service content and pricing method.

Article 34 further prohibits false or misleading marketing about the merchant entity, product performance, quality, user reviews and similar matters. Article 44 prohibits livestream marketing service providers from helping to carry out misleading marketing through fake transactions or reviews. In livestream e-commerce, a streamer¡¯s product pitch directly shapes consumers¡¯ buying decisions, so it is especially important to provide truthful, complete and prominent disclosures on matters such as product source, performance, pricing and after-sales service.

Common interactive marketing in livestreams, such as lucky draws and giveaway benefits, must also comply with promotion rules. Article 11 of China¡¯s Anti-Unfair Competition Law provides that, in prize-based sales promotions, business operators must not provide unclear prize promotion information. In livestream marketing, if the interactive mechanism is directly tied to consumer payment, or if a randomisation mechanism determines what benefit the consumer receives, it is more likely to be treated as probability-based marketing or a blind box-like sales model.

Unboxing formats

Under the Guidelines on Regulating Blind Box Business Practices (Trial), ¡°blind box¡± refers to a business model where, when selling goods or services, the operator tells consumers only a defined range of the goods or services ¨C but does not disclose the specific model, style or service content, with the consumer obtaining specific goods or service through random selection.

In other words, randomness is the core legal feature of blind box products.

Take sports trading cards as an example. Their product design inherently involves random distribution: a box typically includes base cards, limited edition cards, autograph cards and other cards of varying scarcity.

Consumers cannot know in advance which specific cards they will receive, making this format highly similar to blind boxes.

In practice, merchants usually sell card packs or boxes through livestream platforms and conduct live card unboxing during the stream. After a consumer places an order, the streamer opens the pack on camera, shows the cards, and then ships the cards to the consumer. This format is interactive and entertaining, and it can readily trigger impulse purchases by potential consumers.

In sports trading card live unboxing, common formats generally fall into the following categories.

• Card and code: the merchant presets codes linked to specific teams or players. At the live card unboxing, if the unboxed card matches the consumer¡¯s purchased code, the consumer receives the card or a reward.
• Team break: typically used for high-priced boxes where multiple consumers share the cost, and the unboxed cards are allocated based on pre-set rules such as by team, by a card list, or by assigned slots.
• Battle mode: after the live card unboxing, participants compare card value, serial numbers or player tiers, and the winner receives an additional reward. Custom blind box: the merchant opens original boxes, then re-mixes, repackages and resells the cards. Because this changes the original packaging structure, it more easily triggers disputes over odds disclosure, card distribution and overall transaction transparency.

Conclusion

Live card unboxing can be seen as an extension of livestream e-commerce, but adds a clear random mechanism to the transaction process, making its legal assessment different from regular product sales. For this reason, while complying with general livestream rules, live card unboxing may also draw heightened regulatory scrutiny because of its blind box-like nature and gameplay design.

Therefore, the first step in understanding live card unboxing is not only to see its entertainment and social-driven business logic, but also to clarify its underlying legal nature.

The legal risks this model may raise in practice ¨C including information disclosure, protection of minors, and potential gambling or fraud risks ¨C will be addressed in more detail in Part 2 of this series.

Jiang Shen is a partner and Song Xueting is an associate at Jingtian & Gongcheng

Read more about live-stream trading card unboxing

---

Compliance boundary of live-stream trading card ¡®unboxing¡¯ (Part 2)

The first part of this series addressed standard compliance rules and the essential features of live-stream trading card unboxing

---

For more stories about labour disputes, visit law.asia.