Li Jiaqi, a Chinese livestream salesman going head-to-head with Viya, the livestream queen who was recently hit with a record 1.34 billion yuan ($210.3 million) fine for tax evasion, was among multiple influencers and five major platforms, including Taobao, summoned by the Zhejiang Consumers Council on Thursday for various unregulated practices.
The council conducted a consumption inspection of livestream marketing activities on Taobao, Pinduoduo, JD.com, Kuaishou and Douyin, as well as 17 influencers during this year’s Singles’ Day shopping festival. The results of the probe revealed that five of the influencers incurred in exaggerated promotion, the council said in a post on its WeChat account. Additionally, nearly 30 percent of the surveyed influencers and almost 40 percent of the products purchased during the inspection were suspected of a variety of violations.
The issue with unregulated product labels was spotted at the livestream studio of Li with 56.4 million fans on Taobao, read the post.
As a consequence, the council summoned the five platforms and relevant livestreamers to a meeting on Thursday.
Li has yet to comment on the violation. The 29-year-old internet celebrity, known as the lipstick king due to his maverick lipstick sales techniques, has been in the limelight over the past few days since his closest rival Huang Wei, also known as Viya, was slapped with a record fine by tax authorities in Hangzhou, East China’s Zhejiang Province on Monday.
Huang and Li, the top two livestreamers in China, recorded combined sales revenues of 53 billion yuan ($6.8 billion) in 2020, according to industry data.
At Thursday’s meeting, executives from the five platforms responded to the summon by removing substandard items pinpointed during the inspection and penalizing the violators, in addition to a broad-base overhaul.
Taobao said, without elaborating, that the flawed products have been taken off the shelves and the offending livestreamers and vendors have been slapped with penalties.
In the case of Pinduoduo, all offending livestreaming studios have been hit with a seven-day suspension.
JD.com has ordered the removal of relevant products, while Douyin said that the platform has taken measures to ban the corresponding products and has carried out rescans and checks on similar products.
Kuaishou, a short video social platform, said that the anchors involved have been forced to learn the rules and conduct examinations and the products involved will be removed from the shelves.
Regarding the rectification measures for self-removal of products mentioned by various platforms, the council said they will continue to check if all platforms involved with products that do not meet the national standards have removed them from the shelves.
The five platforms and concerning influencers are required to submit a formal rectification report to the council before December 28, according to the council.
Li Jiaqi Photo: VCG
