China to rachet up crackdown on e-commerce click farms, fake sales

BEIJING - China will increase its crackdown on fraudulent practices in the country's e-commerce sector.

Cross-departmental and cross-regional efforts will be made to fight click farms, malicious reviews and fake sales transactions, according to a statement released by the National Development and Reform Commission and seven other government agencies.

The establishment of local and cross-regional industrial alliances is encouraged to discourage such practices.

Harsher punishment such as blacklists will be imposed, and market players that fail to rectify their practices in time might face lower credit ratings or even have their accounts closed, the statement said.

China developed a draft e-commerce law in 2016 and the draft will be deliberated by the national legislature for the third time in June.

China is the world largest e-commerce market, with online retail sales growing 32.2 percent year-on-year in 2017 to reach 7.18 trillion yuan ($1.12 trillion).