(ECNS) -- More than one-third of the goods traded on China's major e-commerce platforms are not up to standards, according to the results of an inspection released by the State Administration of Industry and Commerce on Sunday.
The authority checked a total of 503 batches of goods, with 497 being effective samples, and 172, or 34.6 percent, found to be of inferior quality, Beijing Morning Post reported.
E-commerce sites under review include Taobao, Tmall, Yixun, JD.com, Suning, yhd.com, Gome, vip.com, Dangdang and Amazon China, with sampled goods covering small appliances, cell phones, bags, clothes and children's products.
Four batches of goods carried no information regarding their manufacturer, production date or quality certification, while two batches were confirmed by manufacturers to be counterfeit products.
Among the 172 batches deemed to be of inferior quality, problematic products accounted for 93 percent, while the remaining seven percent had questionable packaging or instructions.
Although third-party vendors were frequently found selling inferior goods on online shopping sites, some of the e-commerce platforms' self-owned businesses were also found selling goods that failed to meet standards, such as the Leleyu a1 toy and the Aiqinqin QQ1318-908 baby fitness frame sold by yhd.com, and the Samsung SM-A8000 by Gome online.
The watchdog has ordered local authorities to make further investigations and punish those responsible for the inferior goods according to law.