CRI听力:Spat between Taobao and Regulator Escalates

At the core of the quarrel is whether Taobao, the most profitable branch of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, has been fairly treated by the regulator.

The State Administration for Industry and Commerce or SAIC published a quality inspection report last week and gave Taobao the lowest rank in terms of its "certified product" rate.

Sample testing showed that only about 37 percent of surveyed commodities sold on Taobao were authentic, well below the 59-percent average across all major online shopping platforms.

Taobao fired back by saying the inspection was flawed in logic as a sample of only 51 items cannot represent the enormous trade volume on the platform.

In response, an SAIC official Yang Hongfeng said the survey just aims to evaluate market risk.

"The survey, like the one during the Double Eleven shopping carnival, was conducted by a third party which has its own plans of selecting samples. The results should not be over-interpreted."

However, in a further response, the SAIC published a white paper regarding Alibaba on Wednesday, accusing it of allowing an influx of fake goods and illegal transactions.

The regulator made clear that strengthening the supervision of online market is its legal duty.

That stance is backed by Zhao Zhanling, a legal counsel for the Internet Society of China.

"The inspection aims to look for leads in illegal online shopping. The results may not be perfect in terms of how the samples were chosen or how it was conducted, but the move itself was intended to safeguard marker order and protect consumers' interests. It's a regulatory move, not personal."

Although the SAIC and Taobao still remain locked in debate over the certified product rate, both sides agree that tough action against counterfeiting is needed.

Taobao announced on Wednesday that it would establish a special force of 300 staff to cooperate with officials to crack down on fake goods.

The SAIC has pledged to continue to take action against illegal activities in online shopping.

Industry watchers, meanwhile, are calling for a sound interplay between producers, online platforms and regulators with all sides having responsibilities to safeguard market order.

For CRI, I'm Qi Zhi.