A company related to Huang Wei, China’s millionaire live-stream queen, better known as Viya, was fined 530,000 yuan ($82,921) for violating advertisement law, which triggered netizens’ worry over the quality of products sold in live-streaming on e-commerce platforms.
The company, Qianxun (Hangzhou) Culture Media Co., Ltd, was fined by the market supervisory authority of Binjiang district, in Hangzhou, East China’s Zhejiang Province, on April 8 for illegal promotion of food and cosmetics, as reported by Jiemian News on Thursday.
According to data from Chinese corporate database Tianyancha, the company was established in September 2019 with Dong Haifeng, Huang’s husband, as legal representative. The company is entirely owned by Qianxun (Hangzhou) Holding Co., Ltd, whose shares are indirectly held by Huang.
The popular online influencer now has more than 80.90 million followers on Taobao livestream platform but she has been criticized more than once by customers for “selling fake goods.”
In May 2021, the live-streamer was accused of selling counterfeit products. Later, Huang apologized on Weibo, saying that the accident was caused by “disputes on trademark and copyrights.”
Chinese market and public security authorities have been stepping up their efforts in cracking down on the sale of counterfeit goods through live-streaming.
In November, 2020, the State Administration of Market Regulation released a notice on guidance and supervision of online live streaming marketing activities saying it will “investigating illegal sales activities of low quality products.”
In August, 2020, the Shanghai police cracked its first case of a “live-streamer selling counterfeit goods.” The seller, who has over 1 million fans, was taken away by the police during a live-streaming sales show.
Viya introduces products during a livestream show in April. Photos: VCG
