(Yicai Global) May 11 -- China's second-largest e-commerce player JD.Com Inc. has called in police in eastern Shandong province to deal its recent delivery of at least five batches of a counterfeit alcohol branded as Kweichow Moutai Co., the country's leading liquor company. The firm blamed thieves for stealthily replacing the genuine bottles during transport.

The customer who broke the news suspected that the 500-milliliter bottles of the highly-priced and much-sought-after liquor he had received were fake after seeing some printing errors on the labels, reported JD on its Weibo microblogging account, adding that this was not the first time. He had found counterfeit bottles in five batches of Moutai, directly sold by JD.com in Shandong in the last six months.

Upon investigation, the product was delivered from JD's Shandong warehouse, which is supplied by a unit of state-owned Beijing Sugar tobacco & Wine Group Co., an authorized dealer.

JD.com said it will cooperate with the police on the investigation, publish its results, and provide compensation to the affected customers.

Editors: Emmi Laine, William Clegg