BEIJING (Reuters) - China's market regulator on Tuesday tightened scrutiny over the country's booming livestreaming e-commerce platforms, where internet influencers sell goods directly to consumers, citing concerns about poor quality products and misleading advertising.
The State Administration of Market Regulation (SAMR) recently met several livestreaming e-commerce companies, which presented self-disciplinary measures, the agency said in a statement, without naming the firms.
It said all livestreaming platforms should "quickly conduct self-control and comprehensive inspections" on product quality, and should punish livestreamers who sell shoddy goods.
The move is the latest in a series of measures by the regulator to rein-in a thriving "platform economy", which includes popular livestreaming e-commerce platforms run by internet giants such as Alibaba (NYSE:BABA)'s Taobao, Kuaishou and ByteDance's short video app Douyin.
Alibaba, ByteDance and Kuaishou did not immediately respond to requests to comment.
Since last year, increasingly vigilant Chinese regulators have launched a probe into e-commerce giant Alibaba Group and imposed penalties on Alibaba, Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU) and Tencent for not seeking anti-trust reviews for acquisitions and corporate tie-ups.
Other firms have been fined for unfair competitive behaviour.