China’s on-demand delivery providers to tighten merchant inspection, as regulator finds 35,000 illegal restaurants on their platforms

  • The Beijing Market Supervision Administration has initiated more than 2,100 cases against illegal food merchants

Yingzhi Yangin Beijing
Drivers of on-demand food delivery services providers Ele.me, in blue, and Meituan Dianping, in yellow, are seen in Beijing on April 11, 2018. Photo: Reuters

Chinese on-demand delivery services operators, including Meituan Dianping and Alibaba Group Holding-owned Ele.me, are tightening inspection of restaurants on their online platforms, after a government regulator found up to 35,000 such establishments were operating illegally.

The Beijing Market Supervision Administration, which has initiated more than 2,100 cases against those illegal food merchants, announced on Wednesday that it has met with these platform operators to “ensure the safety of online-ordered food”. It did not identify the offending merchants.

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