A FINE of 200,000 yuan (US$28,808) has been imposed on an online store for fabricating sales figures on the eve of the Single’s Day shopping spree, the Daily Sunshine reported yesterday.

Before the annual shopping frenzy, a number of media outlets exposed online stores for being suspected of fabricating sales volume, which drew the attention of the city’s market and quality supervision authority.

Law enforcement officers searched “formaldehyde detector” on e-commerce platform Tmall and found that the total sales of formaldehyde detectors by a flagship store amounted to more than 800,000, while the sales of other similar products were usually in the tens of thousands or just thousands, the Daily report said.

After an investigation, the online store was found to have products that were mainly sold on three e-commerce platforms including Tmall, JD.com and 1688.com, and no physical store.

Additionally, from the day the products were launched until Aug. 9 this year, a total of 750,000 were sold, according to the evidence collected.

However, the total number of products produced by the sole authorized manufacturer was only 641,973 and the total number shipped was 634,005, which meant the number of successful transactions was 110,000 more than that of the factory’s total shipment.

After inquiry, the owner of the store admitted that the sales figures had been fabricated. The city’s market inspection bureau has ordered the store to stop the illegal act and imposed a fine of 200,000 yuan in accordance with the law.

(Zhang Yu)