The encyclopedia · Advertising & PR · Marketing decision · 2025
Feiyu staged a luxury-bag flash sale — then faked the result to deny the winner
A secondhand-luxury livestreamer faked a flash-sale result to cancel the only winning order — fined ¥200,000 in Shanghai's first such enforcement.
Feiyu Network Technology (妃鱼网络) · 2025-01
What happened
Feiyu (妃鱼), founded in 2016, built China's biggest secondhand-luxury livestream business, raising nearly US$30 million in Series B funding in 2021 from N5Capital, Legend Capital and Matrix Partners China. Its model was simple: stream authenticated luxury goods on Taobao and Douyin, and let buyers compete in real time.
On 11 January 2024, Feiyu's Hangzhou branch ran a livestream flash sale for a red luxury handbag priced at ¥7,999, requiring buyers to compete by payment order. A single consumer won. The next day, Feiyu fabricated platform data to tell that buyer their order had not gone through, and pressed repeatedly for a refund. When the platform investigated, it confirmed the consumer was the sole valid purchaser.
In January 2025 the Baoshan District Market Supervision Administration fined Feiyu ¥200,000 for false marketing under the Anti-Unfair Competition Law. It was the first time Shanghai publicly penalised suspected fraud in luxury livestream selling — a signal that the category's grey zone of fake flash sales, phantom inventory and pressure tactics was on the regulator's list.
Why it happened
- The flash sale was fabricated: Feiyu faked page information to reverse the result after a buyer had already paid.
- The company blamed a rogue operations team member, but the regulator held the company liable — internal delegation does not transfer legal responsibility.
- Shanghai's market regulators made the case a public benchmark: the first enforcement action naming luxury livestream fraud specifically.
- The secondhand-luxury livestream category had grown fast without trust infrastructure — high prices, hard-to-verify authenticity and pressure tactics made it a regulatory target.
The lesson
A livestream platform that fakes its own flash-sale results has no flash sale to sell — the urgency was the product, and the fraud was the cost.
Aftermath
Feiyu's brand director said the incident was an unauthorised act by a former operations team and that staff had been disciplined or dismissed, but media called the response unconvincing. The case was highlighted amid broader regulatory action: China's livestream sector drew 402,000 consumer complaints in 2024, up 19.3% year-on-year, and the market regulator published draft Livestream E-Commerce Supervision Measures in June 2025.
Sources
- 21st Century Business Herald — Luxury livestream fake flash sale fined ¥200,000; Feiyu's response fails to convince, 2025-09-06
- Sina Finance — Feiyu livestream fined ¥200,000 for fake flash sale of luxury goods, 2025-09-08
- Eastmoney — Shanghai regulators penalise luxury livestream fake flash sale, 2025-09-06
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