Authorities should prevent price cheating from happening again

Regulatory authorities should strictly deal with the price cheating scandal involving three online retailers, and prevent similar problems from happening again, according to an article from Changjiang Daily. Excerpts:

Three major Chinese online retailers — 360buy Jingdong Mall, Suning Appliance and Gome Electrical Appliances — cheated consumers in the so-called “price wars” in August, according to the price supervision bureau of the National Development and Reform Commission’s investigation.

An investigation showed that the three online retailers lied about the original prices of the goods they sold, and failed to fulfill their commitments of the low prices.

“Low price cheating” is not uncommon as “price wars” are always lip service, and sellers have even cheated consumers without being punished. In China the cost of cheating is rather low to the retailers. Since the results of the investigation have been released, what concerns the public the most now is how to punish the three retailers. For the healthy development of the market, there should be strict regulations and supervision to curb these kind of violations. The regulatory authorities should strictly deal with this scandal, and prevent similar problems from happening in the future.