Fierce competition among food delivery apps has led to the spread of "ghost" merchants that lack dine-in premises and are accused of unsanitary conditions and bypassing food safety regulations while posing as regular restaurants online.
They often operate out of residential buildings and use rented business licenses or fake details to get listed on the delivery platforms.
The State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) fined seven major e-commerce platforms a total of 3.6 billion yuan (US$532 million) in April for violations mostly related to ghost deliveries.
The new regulations compel delivery platforms to review their listed merchants at least once every six months to ensure they are legitimate and have the correct business licenses, shifting more onus for food safety onto the apps.
Merchants on food delivery platforms must now have physical shopfronts and label themselves if they do not offer dine-in services, according to the SAMR's new rules.
