China punishes fraudulent online sellers

Tram Ho

China’s cyber cleanup campaign is taking next steps targeting e-commerce. In the first six months of this year, the China Market Administration investigated more than 3,000 cases of fake reviews and overstated data, imposing fines of up to 206 million yuan (31.8 million). USD).

“The black and gray areas have developed to the point of affecting the survival of businesses and infringing on the legitimate rights and interests of consumers. Manipulating reviews and creating fake orders has become a tumor in the market and those involved must be punished,” the agency said in a statement.

Trung Quốc trừng phạt người bán hàng online gian lận - Ảnh 1.

A warehouse owned by Cainiao, a subsidiary of Alibaba.

Alibaba Group in April had to pay a record $2.8 billion fine for proprietary manipulation, including ‘choose one of two’ scenarios where sellers are forced to choose a distribution platform.

Giant Meituan is also under antitrust investigation while ride-hailing app Didi is on the radar of Beijing after it announced plans to IPO in the US.

Analysts say that China is dividing two lines of attack, one targeting the monopoly platforms of the giants, and the other targeting traders with unfair competitive practices.

In recent years, Chinese sellers have actively found their way to the world through cross-border e-commerce platforms such as eBay or Amazon.

Trung Quốc trừng phạt người bán hàng online gian lận - Ảnh 2.

A delivery man is waiting for a red light in Beijing.

In early July, Amazon closed 340 sellers operated by China’s largest retail platform, Shenzhen Youkeshu Technology. Earlier, Amazon also banned three Chinese brands: charger maker Sunvalley Group, headset maker Taotronics and camera maker VAVA. All three are accused of giving gifts to customers in exchange for positive reviews.

Despite repeated bans, sellers from China still dominate Amazon. Mainland is representing 63% of third-party Amazon sellers in the US, up 28% from 2019.

Meanwhile, China’s e-commerce import and export grew to 1.69 trillion yuan ($261.2 billion) in 2020, according to China’s Ministry of Industry and Trade. The number is expected to increase by 29% in the first half of 2021.

According to SCMP

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Source : Genk