sellers punished.

On August 1, the State Administration for Market Regulation announced that close attention had been paid to media reports about counterfeit goods sold by Pinduoduo and asked relevant authorities to investigate the claim.

It said it will step up efforts to crack down on the illegal practices of producing and selling counterfeit goods. The regulator will fight the manufacture and sale of fake or inferior-quality commodities, the infringement on trademarks and illegal advertising.

It also urged the operators of online trading platforms to fulfill their legal obligations, protect the legitimate rights and interests of trademark owners and consumers, and actively cooperate with market regulatory authorities to carry out rectification. The online trading platforms that fail to fulfill their legal obligations will face strict punishment, the regulator warned.

In the faceof the fallout, Pinduoduo held a press conference in Shanghai on July 31, making it clear that they would intensify efforts to eliminate counterfeit goods.

"Since its founding, Pinduoduo has been striving to fight counterfeiting," said Huang.

According to a report on protecting the rights and interests of consumers released by Pinduoduo, in 2017, the company took 10.7 million questionable products off its e-commerce platform, intercepted roughly 4,000 links that infringed on consumers' rights and interests, deleted 125 products after complaints from consumers, and joined hands with more than 400 brands to obtain evidence of and combat counterfeiting.

"In the past, one of the reasons Pinduoduo was able to grow so quickly was that the requirements, assurances and certifications needed to sell on the application are not as rigorous as they