Chinese website fined for misleading hotel ads

A Chinese court has ordered an internet firm to pay a fine of 105,660 yuan to a customer for booking a fake five-star hotel for him through its accommodation website.
Beijing Chaoyang District People's Court upheld its first instance judgment to order the digital service company 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 had booked via eLong.Com in January 2016 were not five-star hotels as advertised by the website.
Previously, eLong.Com had refused to pay a fine of 150,000 yuan (USD 21,600) issued by the city's industry and commerce department in June 2016 for misleading advertising, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

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 Centre said the online booking business had problems ranging from low price competition, non-standard operation and lack of supervision.