淘宝闪购、京东官方发声，揭露遭同行企业长期有组织造谣抹黑

This article discloses a recent case in which a company hired a third-party agency to spread disinformation to defame its business rivals, and the perpetrators have been investigated and handled by Chinese public security authorities. Key takeaways are as follows:

1. Case background: An unnamed company hired Chengdu Benben Culture & Media Co., Ltd. to systematically fabricate false information over a long period to defame businesses including Taobao Flash Sale and JD.com’s food delivery service. The case was uncovered by Sichuan provincial public security authorities during their 100-day crackdown on cyber illegal activities. So far, five individuals have received administrative penalties, and clues related to the unfair competition have been transferred to market regulators for further processing.

2. Responses from the affected companies: Taobao Flash Sale and JD.com have both issued official statements supporting the police enforcement, condemning the illegal behavior that crossed legal boundaries and damaged the business ecosystem and social trust, and vowing to hold all relevant parties accountable by law.

3. Campaign outcomes: As part of Sichuan’s 2026 "Clean Internet" 100-day crackdown, authorities have identified 240 rumor-related clues, investigated 141 cases, and penalized 165 illegal actors. The operation makes it clear that smear campaigns for competitive advantage are illegal and will face severe legal sanctions.

This unfair competition case offers clear warnings and actionable takeaways for brand owners of all types, outlined below:

1. Warning on competitive boundaries: Regulatory authorities are increasingly stepping up crackdowns on unfair competition involving online smear campaigns. Hiring third parties to defame rivals is illegal in all cases: not only will the operators face penalties, but the client company behind the scheme will also be held accountable by market regulators, making this practice extremely high-risk and costly.

2. Reference for reputation protection: When facing organized malicious smear campaigns, brands can issue public official statements and leverage regulatory enforcement outcomes to clarify facts and protect their brand reputation. The response from Taobao Flash Sale and JD.com in this case serves as a useful reference.

3. Insight for long-term growth: Malicious smearing damages the entire industry’s business ecosystem and erodes consumer trust in the market. Only orderly competition conducted within the legal framework can support the long-term healthy development of brands.

This case clarifies competitive rules for sellers of all types, and outlines risks and response strategies as follows:

1. Clear policy update: Regulators have launched the 2026 "Clean Internet" 100-day special crackdown focused on online rumors and unfair competition. To date, the campaign has resulted in 141 investigated cases and 165 illegal actors punished, signaling continuously intensifying regulatory oversight.

2. Clear risk warning: Sellers must never attempt to gain market share by spreading disinformation to defame competitors. This practice crosses legal boundaries, leads to administrative penalties, and brings severe legal consequences that can threaten the existence of a seller’s business.

3. Reference for incident response: If sellers become the target of organized malicious smear attacks, they should promptly file reports with public security and market regulatory authorities, clarify facts through official statements, and leverage law enforcement to protect their legitimate rights and interests.

This case brings both development opportunities and operational insights for compliant manufacturing factories, outlined below:

1. Clarified rules of competition: All market competition, whether on the production side or distribution side, must be conducted within a legal framework. Smear campaigns to gain market share are now facing strict crackdowns. Factories looking to win market recognition should focus their resources on improving product quality and upgrading design, as building high-quality products that meet market demand is the core of sustainable competitiveness.

2. Clear development benefits: Regulators’ crackdown on unfair competition will continuously purify the e-commerce business ecosystem, creating a fairer competitive environment for compliant factories. This will help factories expand their e-commerce channels, advance digital transformation, and unlock greater growth space.

3. Reference for rights protection: If factories face malicious smearing of their products and brands from industry peers, they can follow the precedent of this case, report the incident to law enforcement authorities, and protect their commercial interests through legal channels.

This case offers clear operational warnings and direction insights for public relations, marketing, and online reputation management service providers, outlined below:

1. Clear industry regulatory trend: Public security and market regulatory authorities are currently carrying out large-scale rectification of online rumors and unfair competition. Taking on contracts to defame clients’ competitors is illegal. In this case, personnel from the involved Benben Culture & Media have already received administrative penalties and will cooperate with ongoing regulatory investigations, making it clear that accepting this type of business comes with extremely high legal risk.

2. Operational risk warning: Some clients may request illegal services to smear their competitors. Such requests violate the law, and service providers must not take on this work for short-term profit, as doing so will drag the provider into illegal activity and threaten its long-term survival.

3. Direction for long-term development: Service providers should focus on legally compliant brand promotion and legitimate reputation management services, helping clients protect their brand reputation and compete fairly within a legal framework. Only compliant operation can deliver long-term, stable growth.

This case offers insights on ecosystem management and risk response for e-commerce and internet platforms, outlined below:

1. Ecosystem risk warning: Organized unfair competition where companies hire professional agencies to defame rivals has emerged in the current market. This activity is not only illegal, but also damages platform operating ecosystems and erodes user trust in platforms. Platforms must prioritize this issue and implement proactive prevention and处置.

2. Direction for operational management: In merchant onboarding and daily operations, platforms must establish clear rules prohibiting in-merchant unfair competition via smear campaigns. Platforms should promptly remove false negative content when found, actively cooperate with regulators to investigate and penalize illegal actors, and maintain a healthy platform ecosystem.

3. Development opportunity: Regulatory crackdowns on unfair competition help platforms purify their operating environment. Compliant platforms can leverage this regulatory momentum to improve their own rule systems, attract more compliant brand merchants to join, boost long-term platform competitiveness, and mitigate the risk of ecosystem degradation.

This case reveals new trends and emerging issues in current internet industry competition, and provides a typical case and insights for relevant research, outlined below:

1. Emerging issue in industrial competition: As online business grows in influence, some companies have adopted organized, systematic, full-scale online smear campaigns as a tool for unfair competition, often hiring specialized media agencies to carry out the work. This has formed a gray industrial chain for unfair competition, which is a new issue in internet industry competition that warrants in-depth research.

2. New regulatory trend: Regulators have now launched special rectification campaigns targeting this type of online unfair competition. Sichuan’s 2026 "Clean Internet" 100-day crackdown has already achieved phased results, with 240 rumor clues identified, 141 cases investigated, and 165 illegal actors penalized. This demonstrates continuously intensifying enforcement against such behavior, and confirms that rule-of-law-based competition has become the mainstream direction for industrial development.

3. Research insights: Future research on the governance of unfair competition in the internet industry can prioritize organized online smear activity as a key research area, and explore paths to improve regulations and regulatory mechanisms to better maintain a healthy industrial competitive order.