"Fake live broadcast" is a gangster! Merchant’s recording and broadcasting pretending to bring goods in real time was permanently banned. Court: The platform’s punishment is legal

China News Service, Beijing, November 11 (Reporter Liu Yue) With live broadcast e-commerce booming, "real-time interaction" is an important bargaining chip for anchors to win the trust of consumers. However, in order to reduce costs, some businesses use recorded videos to pretend to be live broadcasts.

On November 10, the Beijing Internet Court held a press conference to report on the trial of disputes involving platform management network service contracts, and reported a case of "recording and broadcasting pretending to be live broadcasting." A trading company repeatedly used edited and spliced ​​recordings to disguise real-time live broadcasts. The platform permanently blocked its live broadcast rights and then sued to defend its rights. The court eventually dismissed all claims.

According to the court, in December 2025, platform monitoring found that multiple live broadcasts of the account involved had abnormal characteristics: the live broadcast suddenly started or ended, there were obvious traces of audio modifications on the screen, sudden scenes were switched after lags, and there were obvious traces of splicing and editing. Previously, the account had been temporarily banned due to similar violations and had been reported by users many times. In accordance with the user agreement, the platform punished him by indefinitely banning his live broadcast and connection rights on the grounds of "recording and broadcasting disguised as live broadcast". The plaintiff, a trading company, claimed that the recorded content also had commercial value and that the penalty of permanent ban on the platform was too severe. It requested that the restrictions be lifted and economic losses compensated.

The Beijing Internet Court held that the two parties clearly agreed through the user agreement not to conduct recording and broadcasting, and the plaintiff repeatedly carried out this behavior and triggered user complaints, which had a negative impact on the healthy operating ecology of the live broadcast marketing platform. The platform permanently banned the live broadcast rights of the account involved in the case in accordance with the agreement, which has sufficient factual basis and complies with legal regulations and the agreement. Packaging the recorded content as real-time live broadcast makes consumers mistakenly think that the host is explaining on the spot, which directly breaks the boundaries of honest and trustworthy operations. Such behavior not only misleads consumers, but also obtains unfair competitive advantages by reducing live broadcast costs and disrupts the normal operating order of the platform.

Data show that from 2024 to October 2026, the number of disputes involving platform governance network service contracts accepted by the Beijing Internet Court surged from 311 to 6,909, of which disputes related to online live broadcast platform governance accounted for 36.1%, a significant increase. The court made it clear that the platform has the right to adopt stepped penalties for recording and broadcasting that pretend to be live broadcasts in accordance with the contract. As live broadcast e-commerce enters the stage of standardized development, "authenticity" has become a core issue in platform governance. This case has sounded the alarm for the live broadcast industry: technological fraud cannot escape algorithmic monitoring, and only honest operations can achieve stable and long-term development. (over)