On April 17, 2026, the State Administration for Market Regulation imposed administrative penalties on seven e-commerce platforms — Meituan, JD.com, Pinduoduo, Taobao Flash Buy, Douyin (TikTok), Taobao, and Tmall — in connection with the “ghost restaurant” series of cases. The total fines and confiscated funds amounted to 3.597 billion yuan (approx. $500 million), with separate fines of over 19.68 million yuan imposed on the platforms’ legal representatives and food safety directors — the largest penalty ever imposed in the field of food safety in China. Investigations found 67,604 “ghost restaurants” across the seven platforms, all lacking physical business premises, operating through forged licenses and batch online onboarding via order-transfer platforms, forming a well-defined illegal industry chain involving platforms, order-transfer platforms, and ghost merchants. Effective June 1, the “Regulations on the Supervision and Administration of the Implementation of Food Safety Primary Responsibility by Online Catering Service Operators” formally took effect: dine-in-free delivery-only restaurants must prominently display a dedicated identifier on the platform; platforms must conduct on-site verification of merchant qualifications for substantive review and periodic re-inspection, and may no longer evade primary responsibility by adopting a “commission-only, no-liability” approach.
On May 26, the Shanghai Municipal Administration for Market Regulation launched the country’s first online catering electronic license verification application, breaking down data silos between regulators, platforms, and merchants, establishing a trusted verification mechanism of “real person, real license, real store,” transforming platforms from passive “order-taking reviewers” into proactive “co-governance responsible parties.” JD.com’s food delivery service simultaneously announced the launch of the “Dine-In Visible” special campaign, stipulating that a store must meet three conditions to be recognized as a dine-in restaurant: having a designated dining area, occupying more than 50% of the store’s floor space, and being open to the public on a daily basis. The approval rate is only about 40% — the strictest in the industry. For compliant non-dine-in stores, dual technical supervision is implemented: live-streaming from the kitchen and AI patrols.