A Chinese regulator has accused Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (阿里巴巴) of failing to clean up what it called illegal business deals on the e-commerce titan’s platforms, in an unusually strong government criticism of one of the country’s biggest private firms.
The Chinese State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC), in a report published on its Web site yesterday, said many products sold on Alibaba’s e-commerce Web sites and services infringed on trademarks, were substandard or fake, were banned or endangered public security.
The report was later removed from the main page of the SAIC Web site (www.saic.gov.cn).
Alibaba declined to comment on the report.
SAIC said the report summarized meeting on July 16 last year between government business regulators and Alibaba, and that it had delayed releasing the report to avoid affecting the e-commerce firm’s initial public offering (IPO), which took place in September last year.
SAIC did not elaborate.
Alibaba, which raised a record-setting US$25 billion from its New York IPO, is due to release its quarterly results today.
“Alibaba Group has long paid insufficient attention to illegal business activities on Alibaba platforms,” the SAIC report said.
Alibaba “let that abscess fester until it became a danger,” it added.
The report said Alibaba officials pledged during the July meeting to take the necessary steps to rectify the problems.
The SAIC has a broad supervisory role over online trading platforms and business in China.
Alibaba, which until a few years ago was on a US list of “notorious markets” for intellectual property infringement, has fought hard to tackle counterfeit products to keep its reputation from being tarnished in the run-up to, and after, the IPO, the world’s biggest ever listing.
Earlier this month, it agreed with the US Consumer Product Safety Commission to stop the sale of up to 15 illegal or dangerous toys in the US.
However, online counterfeit products remain a big problem in China.
Joe Simone, director of Hong-Kong based intellectual property consultancy SIPS, said the regulator’s comments about counterfeit goods were no surprise.
“The frankness of the report and its condemning tone are unprecedented and speak volumes about what the SAIC found in its inspection,” he added.
In the report, the regulator said Alibaba had misled consumers during sales events, including its popular Nov. 11 annual “Singles Day” shopping extravaganza.
At last year’s event, Alibaba reported a surge in sales transactions to a record high of US$9 billion, but merchants said they felt pressure from Alibaba’s Tmall to boost their figures on the day with heavy discounts and delayed recognition of earlier sales.
Alibaba’s consumer-to-consumer shopping Web site Taobao yesterday said it would lodge a complaint with the SAIC over a separate investigation by the regulator that allegedly uncovered a range of counterfeit products on the site.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last