EBay China has announced it will investigate the auction of illegal satellite dishes on its website.

"Any items that violate our user agreement and Chinese law are prohibited from our site," a PR spokeswoman from eBay China said on Tuesday.

Local authorities have launched a month-long hunt for illegal satellite dishes that can receive foreign programs. The Beijing Anti-Pornography and Anti-Piracy Office will target the production, distribution and installation of unauthorized satellite dishes and individuals will be fined up to 5,000 yuan (625 U.S. dollars) for installing a satellite dish.

Even after the publicized launch of the campaign, adverts for satellite dishes were still up and running on Internet auctions sites including eBay.com.cn.

According to the eBay user agreement, satellite and cable TV descramblers, animals and wildlife products are prohibited from being sold online.

"We have a system that filters items by picking out key words that indicate they are prohibited and staff workers monitor the site to find prohibited items that are left out by filtering," the spokeswoman said.

She explained that since eBay has so many auctions every day, they cannot detect every prohibited item in a timely fashion. "But we will delete the postings if our users report them to us and we find it to be true after investigation."

China's regulation on satellite dishes issued in 1993 prohibits individuals or work units from setting up satellite dishes to receive foreign programs.

Satellite dishes are legally allowed only in hotels above three stars, office buildings and apartments that are designed for foreigners.

However, many Chinese people and foreigners who live in Chinese apartment complexes install dishes for a wider selection of programs.

Satellite dishes sold on on-line auction sites range in price from 1,200 to 7,000 yuan (150 to 875 U.S. dollars) depending on the number of channels available.

Source: Xinhua