Meituan Responds to Penalty: Will Severely Crack Down on Order Transfers and Safeguard Food Delivery Safety
Today, Meituan issued a statement saying it has received the "Administrative Penalty Decision" from the State Administration for Market Regulation regarding the platform's failure to fulfill its qualification review obligations according to law. Meituan responded that the company will implement various rectification measures in accordance with food safety supervision requirements and comprehensively enhance its governance capabilities.
Under the guidance of regulatory authorities at all levels, we will resolutely crack down on illegal and irregular acts such as restaurant order transfers and launching businesses with false qualifications, further upgrade measures, strengthen governance, and effectively safeguard food delivery safety.
According to CCTV News, today the State Administration for Market Regulation imposed administrative penalties on seven e-commerce platforms – Beijing Sankuai Technology Co., Ltd. (Meituan), Beijing Jingdong Sanbailiudu E-Commerce Co., Ltd. (JD.com), Shanghai Lazas Information Technology Co., Ltd. (formerly Ele.me, now Taobao Flash Sale), Beijing Douyin Technology Co., Ltd. (TikTok), Zhejiang Taobao Network Co., Ltd. (Taobao), Zhejiang Tmall Network Co., Ltd. (Tmall) – in a series of “ghost restaurants” cases, in accordance with Article 131 of the "People's Republic of China Food Safety Law" and Article 83 of the "People's Republic of China E-Commerce Law." The seven platforms were ordered to correct their illegal acts, suspend the addition of new cake stores for 3 to 9 months, and were fined a total of 3.597 billion yuan.
According to Article 75 of the "Regulations for the Implementation of the People's Republic of China Food Safety Law," the legal representatives and food safety directors of the seven platform companies were collectively fined 19.6874 million yuan.
The investigation revealed that the above-mentioned seven e-commerce platforms were lax in reviewing the licenses of food businesses entering the network, failing to fulfill their qualification review obligations according to law; they signed cooperation agreements with order transfer platforms, knowingly or should have known that order transfer behavior infringed on the legitimate rights and interests of consumers, but failed to take necessary measures; the legal representatives and food safety directors of the seven e-commerce platforms bear food safety management responsibilities, but failed to fully perform their relevant job duties.
The above-mentioned acts seriously violated the relevant provisions of the "People's Republic of China Food Safety Law," the "People's Republic of China E-Commerce Law," and the "Regulations for the Implementation of the People's Republic of China Food Safety Law."