Research On The Judicial Recognition Of Internet MLM Crimes

In recent years,with the development of the Internet and business marketing model,pyramid selling activities have undergone great changes in form.Network MLM crimes are new types of crowd-related economic crimes carried out through the medium of the Internet.Network organizations usually use the legal names of capital operation,financial innovation,consumer rebates and charitable operations to avoid criminal prosecution of marketing crimes.Such pyramid schemes are organized on a large scale and involve a large number of people,which not only disrupt the market economic order of China,but also cause great losses to people’s property and seriously threaten social stability.On the one hand,the network pyramid schemes retain some of the characteristics of traditional pyramid schemes,and on the other hand,there are new features that are different from traditional pyramid schemes,such as the flattening of the organizational structure,the virtualization of the goods involved,and the rapid renewal of the organization from generation to generation.The Amendment to the Criminal Law(VII)provides for the crime of "organizing and leading pyramid selling activities" for the first time,and the judicial interpretation issued afterwards has continuously improved the prosecution standard of this crime.However,there are many controversies in judicial practice when the crime of organizing and leading pyramid selling activities is prosecuted according to the criminal elements of the crime.This paper takes the network pyramid scheme case as the research object,summarizes the judicial status of this kind of crime by combining with judicial cases,finds out the dilemma of the current judicial determination of the network pyramid scheme crime by comparing the focus of controversy,and puts forward the corresponding specific determination method on this basis,in order to provide ideas for the handling of the network pyramid scheme case.Firstly,we introduce the concept of traditional pyramid scheme crime,the definition of network pyramid scheme crime,the difference between network crime and traditional pyramid scheme crime,and the common manifestations of network pyramid scheme.By discerning the concepts related to network marketing crimes,we clarify the concepts related to network marketing crimes as a whole,and provide the theoretical basis for analyzing the judicial status and dilemma of network marketing crimes below.Secondly,the typical cases of network marketing and the current situation of judicial determination are analyzed.As a special "pyramid selling" model formed in the Internet era with the convenience of the network,although China has formed a comprehensive legal regulation system from administrative regulations to judicial interpretations for pyramid selling crimes,there are still many difficulties in judicial practice due to the endless methods of network pyramid selling.This part mainly collects 161 judgments on network pyramid schemes from 2020-2022 on the Judgment Document Online,summarizes and analyzes the results of the judgments,and selects typical cases to study and analyze the judicial status of network pyramid schemes,and summarizes the difficulties in identifying network pyramid schemes in judicial practice by combining the controversial focus of the prosecution and the defense,and leads to the judicial identification of network pyramid schemes by point to point.The main problems in the judicial recognition of network marketing cases are summarized.Again,the current judicial determination dilemma of network marketing crimes is analyzed and organized according to the current research situation.From the perspective of theoretical analysis and empirical analysis,we list out the specific problems in the determination of criminal acts,criminal subjects,and application of crimes in network marketing crimes.First,in terms of criminal subjects,there are deviations in judicial practice in the criteria of "organization and leader",the characterization of network service providers is still controversial,and there are differences in whether active participants should be included in the category of "organization and leader";second,in terms of Secondly,in terms of the determination of behavior,the criteria for determining the number of layers and the number of people developed in online pyramid schemes are unclear,mainly reflecting whether the "virtual points" appearing in the network environment should be counted as the number of subordinates,the existing criteria for determining the layers are formalized,and there is a lack of clarity in distinguishing between the new pay model and the team pay model in online pyramid schemes;thirdly,in terms of the charges of online pyramid schemes,there is a lack of clarity in judicial practice.Third,in judicial practice,there is the problem of not being able to clarify the boundary between this crime and the other crime.Finally,the current judicial determination dilemma puts forward a targeted improvement path.The specific contents include: in terms of criminal subjects,unifying the criteria for determining "organization and leader",accurately characterizing the culpability of network service providers,expanding the scope of interpretation of criminal subjects,and advocating the criminalization of active participants;in terms of criminal acts,accurately identifying the hierarchical nature of online pyramid schemes,reasonably treating the problem of "false points" in downlines,and promoting the criminalization of active participants.In terms of criminal behavior,it is important to accurately identify the nature of the hierarchy of network marketing organizations,reasonably treat the problem of "virtual points" in the downline,and clearly distinguish the key to the difference between the network marketing payment method and team payment;in terms of the determination of the crime of network marketing,it is important to clearly distinguish the crime of marketing from the crime of fund raising fraud and illegal business operation,for example,there are differences in the subjective purpose,behavior,organizational structure,etc.,which should be accurately distinguished in practice so as to correctly convict and sentence.In order to convict and sentence correctly.