Taobao locks horns with regulator

An advertisement for online shopping site Taobao.com of Alibaba Group is seen at a metro station in Shanghai, Nov 12, 2014. [Photo/IC]

E-commerce giant claims in an open letter it has been treated unfairly, accusing official of abusing power

China's largest consumer-to-consumer platform taobao.com said on Wednesday it will file a complaint against an official at a government watchdog.

It claims the official abused power and ruined the reputation of Taobao's online site as well as that of online vendors in China.

Taobao's decision escalates tension between the platform and the State Administration for Industry and Commerce.

In an open letter on Wednesday, Taobao, which is owned by e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding, accused Liu Hongliang, who is in charge of regulating online trade at the administration, of "using a wrong method and reaching a conclusion that is not objective".

A recent quality report released by the administration showed Taobao with the worst performance among six major online shopping sites.

The quality check, carried out between August and October, showed that less than 40 percent of goods from Taobao that were tested were authentic. This compared with 90 percent for JD.com and 85.7 percent for Tmall, an Alibaba business-to-consumer site.

At least 51 of the 92 items chosen for the administration's inspection were sampled from Taobao, according to the platform, while just 10 items were sampled from one of its competitors.

Taobao, which is headquartered in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, said it had received unfair treatment in the quality check, according to an open letter released to the public on Tuesday.

The administration was not available for comment by press time.

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