Odvětví blind boxů jako případ selhání trhu: behaviorální spotřeba, environmentální externality a mezery v řízení a regulaci

This thesis examines the blind box toy industry as a potential case of market failure driven by behavioral consumption dynamics, environmental externalities, and governance gaps. Blind boxes are collectible products sold in sealed packaging in which consumers do not know the exact figure received until after purchase. The rapid global expansion of companies such as Pop Mart has transformed uncertainty, rarity, and repeated purchasing into central commercial mechanisms within the collectibles industry. The research adopts a mixed-methods approach combining academic literature, market reports, sustainability disclosures, regulatory analysis, direct product observation, and semi-structured interviews conducted across the blind box value chain. In addition, welfare loss estimations, probability modeling, and packaging intensity comparisons are used to evaluate the structural characteristics of the industry. The findings indicate that the blind box model encourages repeated purchasing behavior through uncertainty-based product design and variable reward systems that influence consumer decision-making beyond functional utility. The study further identifies significant environmental externalities associated with intensive plastic use, multilayer packaging, duplicate products, and limited recyclability. In addition, the analysis reveals important governance and regulatory gaps across Asia, the European Union, and the United States, where existing frameworks remain insufficient to address the structural environmental impacts generated by the business model. The thesis concludes that the blind box industry represents a contemporary form of consumption in which uncertainty itself becomes a scalable commercial strategy capable of generating economic inefficiencies and environmental consequences that are not fully corrected through existing market or regulatory mechanisms.