(File photo)

China’s e-commerce giant Taobao, together with a Shenzhen-based car emissions filter manufacturer, is currently facing a lawsuit filed by a Beijing-based environmental protection NGO for selling temporary filters for MOT tests. The pair has been ordered to pay 151.7 million RMB.

The case was accepted by Hangzhou’s Intermediate People’s Court on Oct. 26. It remains to be seen whether the court will put the case on record and whether there will be a trial.

The temporary exhaust filters, often dubbed as “MOT masterpieces,” can be easily found on Taobao. Such filters are usually priced between 100 and 200 RMB. Indeed, the defendant, Shenzhen Sumei Environmental Protection Company, boasts a high sales record of over 30,000 filters, which can be reused up to three times and are “100 percent sure to pass MOT tests.”

Filters for car emissions usually transfer toxic gas into carbon dioxide, nitrogen and oxygen. The life span of a filter is between five and eight years, and the products are usually very expensive. The most expensive ones can cost over 1,000 RMB, China Youth Daily reported.

By contrast, the Shenzhen-based manufacturer boasted on its Taobao shop that each of their recyclable filters can help several diesel cars pass MOT tests.

“They are very popular. Many garages across the country are using our products,” a salesperson told the newspaper.

According to the plaintiff, China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation, this means the company is “helping cars with heavy emissions evade MOT through falsified methods. They are colluding with heavy polluters on the road. It is not only against the law, it has also greatly affected the nation’s air pollution control measures.”

The NGO added that Taobao has failed to supervise its platform to prevent such illegal shops from operating.

China’s Law on the Prevention and Control of Atmospheric Pollution bans the temporary change of car emissions filters for MOT tests. Garages are also forbidden to offer maintenance or installation of such filters.