Pinduoduo’s reputation as fake seller endures as Apple seeks to halt sales

Chinese social e-commerce upstart Pinduoduo can’t rid itself of its reputation as a counterfeit seller. The social e-commerce site has denied that Apple is seeking to cut off distributors from supplying its products to the platform due to concern over counterfeit products in response to media reports about the dispute.

The Alibaba rival maintained “all the latest iPhones models and other Apple products available on Pinduoduo are authentic and sold at the lowest price across all platforms,” (our translation) according to a statement from the company shared to TechNode late Monday. Every iPhone delivered to customers comes with its official invoice from the resellers, the company said.

Pinduoduo, which is not on Apple’s authorized online reseller list that include JD, Tmall, and Suning, sources inventory from the company’s authorized offline distributors, according to the company. Chinese media reported on Monday that Apple asked several such distributors to suspend their partnership with Pinduoduo, or risk losing coveted distributor status. Apple declined to comment on the matter.

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