China's accommodation website sued for misleading hotel ads

BEIJING - A Beijing court has ordered eLong.com, a digital service company, to pay 105,660 yuan ($15,278) to a customer who booked fake five-star hotels via the site.

Beijing Chaoyang District People's Court upheld its first instance judgement to order the Internet firm to pay three times the customer's booking fee.

The customer, who has only been identified by his surname Li, filed the lawsuit after he found the three hotels that he booked via eLong.com in January 2016 were not five-star hotels as advertized by the site.

Previously, eLong.com had refused to pay a fine of 150,000 yuan issued by the city's industry and commerce department in June 2016 for misleading advertising.

There are 700 million Internet users in China, more than half the population. Travel sites are among the most popular services. China Internet Network Information Center said the online booking business has problems ranging from low price competition, non-standard operation and lack of supervision.