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China’s market regulator on Tuesday tightened scrutiny over the country’s booming livestream e-commerce platforms, where internet influencers sell goods directly to consumers, citing concerns about poor quality products and misleading advertising.
The State Administration of Market Regulation (SAMR) recently met several livestream e-commerce companies, which presented self-disciplinary measures, the agency said in a statement, without naming the firms.
It said all livestream platforms should “quickly conduct self-control and comprehensive inspections” on product quality, and should punish livestreamers who sell shoddy goods.
The move is the latest in a series of measures by the regulator to rein-in a thriving “platform economy,” which includes popular livestream e-commerce platforms run by internet giants such as Alibaba’s Taobao, Kuaishou and ByteDance’s short video app Douyin.
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Alibaba, ByteDance and Kuaishou did not immediately respond to requests to comment.
Since last year, increasingly vigilant Chinese regulators have launched a probe into e-commerce giant Alibaba Group and imposed penalties on Alibaba, Baidu and Tencent for not seeking anti-trust reviews for acquisitions and corporate tie-ups.
Other firms have been fined for unfair competitive behaviour.
By Yingzhi Yang and Tony Munroe; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Edmund Blair.
