Two men chat beside a logo of Alibaba at its headquarters on the outskirts of Hangzhou, Zhejiang province. [Photo/Agencies]

ON WEDNESDAY, Fengxian district court in Shanghai ruled that a seller of fake products compensate Alibaba's online marketplace, Taobao, on which the defendant ran his business, 120,000 yuan ($17,824). Legal Daily comments:

Although the compensation is small compared with Taobao's revenue, the case－the first in which the e-commerce company took the initiative to sue one of its online retailers－is of symbolic importance as it marks the transformation of the relations between the e-commerce company and its contracted merchants.

Admittedly, most of the online retailers try their best to provide customers with quality products and services. But it is undeniable that there are some retailers selling fake and substandard products on e-commerce sites.

The providers of e-commerce sites such as Taobao are hesitant to deal with any retailers selling fake or shoddy products on their platforms, because of the money they make from them.

But when the problematic retailers damage the reputation and image of the e-commerce platforms, the latter's tolerance reaches its limit and they have to do whatever it needs to bring the problematic retailers to court.

Hopefully, other e-commerce platform providers will seek to cleanse themselves of retailers selling fake goods, which will not only benefit themselves but more importantly consumers.

It is time to pick the bad apples from the baskets.