China's State Administration of Market Regulation announced Monday that it had fined online discount retailer Vipshop RMB 3 million ($464,570) for unfair competition.
The market regulator said it began an investigation into Vipshop's alleged unfair competition in January 2021. The results showed that between August and December last year, Vipshop disrupted the fair competition market order by restricting the sales channels of brand operators in order to gain a competitive advantage and trading opportunities.
Vipshop subsequently stated on Weibo that it accepted and fulfilled the penalty in a timely manner and that it would carry out comprehensive rectification in accordance with the requirements and the provisions of the Anti-Unfair Competition Law of China.
In recent years, some e-commerce platforms have used coercive means such as search downgrading, blocking, and raising transaction fees on merchants to gain competitive advantage and trading opportunities, often resulting in complaints, reports, and lawsuits between merchants and the platform.
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