Beijing’s market regulator has summoned major e-commerce platforms including Taobao, Tmall and JD.com over excessive competition during the ongoing “618” shopping festival, reports Caixin.

On Thursday, the Beijing Municipal Administration for Market Regulation held talks with Taobao, Tmall, JD.com, Pinduoduo, Douyin and Xiaohongshu, where the regulator showed a batch of systemic problems uncovered during its ongoing campaign against involution-style competition that included false advertising, non-compliant promotion rule making and failure to disclose vendor credentials.

During the “618” shopping festival, Taobao, Tmall, Pinduoduo and JD.com heavily marketed their RMB 10 billion ($1.5 billion) subsidy campaigns. However, none of the platforms specified the actual subsidy amounts or the funding ratios shared between the platforms and merchants, nor could they provide supporting evidence to the regulator. 

Chinese steelmaker Hebei Jingye has initiated consultation procedures with the UK government under a bilateral investment treaty, seeking compensation for losses after the state takeover of British Steel, reports Caixin.

Jingye acquired British Steel in March 2020 for about £53 million (nearly $70 million), gaining control of a company with an annual crude steel production capacity of 4.5 million tons. Over the next five years, the Chinese firm invested more than £1.2 billion, despite daily losses of roughly £700,000.

The conflict erupted on March 27, 2025, when British Steel announced consultations on closing its two blast furnaces—the last two operating in the UK. To prevent the shutdowns, the government rushed the Steel Industry (Special Measures) Act through parliament in a single day in April 2025, authorizing a state takeover.

Fast-fashion giant Shein faces a combined fine of nearly 22.5 million euros ($26 million) from French authorities for violating consumer protection and environmental rules, reports Caixin.

France’s Directorate General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control (DGCCRF) announced on Wednesday that it penalized the e-commerce company over issues related to its return policies, product information disclosure, and order confirmation processes.

Following an investigation in 2025 into Shein’s French website, the DGCCRF found that the company failed to comply with France’s Consumer Code regarding return rights. It also determined that Shein lacked traceability information on its products and did not disclose whether items contained plastic microfibers, a requirement under French environmental law for products comprising more than 50% synthetic fibers. Consequently, the regulator fined Shein’s sales entity, Infinite Styles Ecommerce, 5.76 million euros.

China is set to implement a landmark regulation next month that aims to protect the basic rights of its rapidly growing cohort of older workers, reports Caixin. The move, analysts say, will significantly reshape relations between employers and senior staff, but could also drive-up business costs and trigger a temporary hiring contraction for older employees.

The Interim Provisions on the Protection of Basic Rights and Interests of Over-age Workers, issued by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, will take effect on July 1. As a key supporting measure for China’s broader delayed-retirement initiative, the new rules establish a distinct legal status for “over-age workers”—those who continue to work after reaching the statutory retirement age. For the first time, it guarantees them core rights such as work injury insurance.

Under China’s traditional retirement system, reaching the statutory retirement age automatically terminates a formal labor relationship. However, this has not stopped older citizens from working. Many continue to seek employment to supplement their income, even as they are cut off from the legal protections of standard labor contracts. This dynamic has left older workers vulnerable to unpaid wages, unsafe working conditions, and a lack of compensation for on-the-job injuries, leading to a surge in labor disputes as China’s population rapidly ages.

Chinese online retailer Temu has been fined €200 million ($232 million) for not doing ​enough to stop the sale of illegal products, reports Reuters. Further penalties could follow in the coming months as a result of a nearly two-year investigation under the Digital Services Act that requires large online companies to do more to tackle illegal and harmful ​content on their platforms.

EU regulators investigated Temu following complaints by pan-European consumers’ organisation BEUC and ​17 of its national members. The European Commission, the EU executive, said the company failed ⁠to diligently identify, analyze and assess the systemic risks of illegal products sold on its platform and ​the resulting harm to consumers in the European Union.

It criticised Temu for not properly assessing how its recommender ​systems and product promotion programmes by affiliated influencers could amplify the risks of sales of illegal products.