False ads banned ahead of shopping frenzy

In the days ahead of the Nov 11 online shopping frenzy, 22 Shanghai-based major e-commerce enterprises are being required to regulate their promotional activities by Shanghai authorities, the Paper.cn reported.

The order was given during summons by officials that emphasized the ban on false advertising. Pinduoduo, Meituan Dianping, Gome online, Little Red Book, Eleme, J1, Yaofangwang, Tuhu and Ymatou were on the call list.

In addition, on Friday, Beijing authorities, including its market supervision body, summoned 10 major e-commerce platform providers including Tmall and JD.com to offer administrative guidance. Advertising is one of the focuses on both of the calls in Shanghai and Beijing, eyeing at better regulating the coming "Double 11" online shopping frenzy.

According to Shanghai authorities, false advertising ranked first among regulation violations this year. Some sellers falsely advertised their goods, even by slandering their competitors.

Local government officials in Beijing emphasized e-commerce platform enterprises shall not raise prices ahead of the "Double 11" then reduce them during the promotion campaign.

"False advertising and poor quality are the most frequent complaints during 'Double 11' in recent years," said Meng Huixin, assistant analyst at an e-commerce research center.

"Shopping notes and live streaming are popular among online shoppers, belonging to the spectrum of 'online influencers who make a product hot sold online', but the mechanisms of their content approval and supervision are not perfect, resulting in both false data and false advertising in promotion and goods of 'three Nos' (goods with no date of production, no qualified assurance and no tagged manufacture). "