HANGZHOU - China's commerce regulators have shut down 168 illegal e-commerce websites in 2012, patrolling a bustling online shopping environment, attendees of a conference on e-commerce regulations on Tuesday were told.

Authorities have inspected 290,000 e-commerce websites and 28,000 offline stores this year, it was revealed at the conference, which gathered heads of industry and commerce administrations from around the country in Hangzhou, provincial capital of Zhejiang.

So far, 167 illegal cases have been busted and 7.14 million items of illegal online shopping information have been deleted in 2012.

Law violations concerning e-commerce have declined rapidly, as some 1,400 illegal websites were shut down and 34 million pieces of illegal shopping information were deleted in 2011.

The Administration of Industry and Commerce in Zhejiang, also home to China's largest e-commerce platform provider, Alibaba Group, inspected offline stores that also run online selling accounts, and shut down a string of illegal e-commerce websites including wjgw.com.

The Shanghai Administration of Industry and Commerce launched a campaign this year to regulate "group buying," a popular online shopping form based on individuals coming together to collect discounts for buying in bulk, and corrected misconduct in the business.

The Chongqing Administration of Industry and Commerce tagged "e-labels" on online retailers for identification purposes. Authorities in Zhejiang and the southwestern city of Chengdu also set up similar mechanisms to track retailers' credit records.

E-commerce has become popular in China in recent years with mounting online sales. This year's "Singles' Day" on Nov 11 saw the latest shopping spree, with major online retailers including Tmall.com, Suning.com and Dangdang.com raking in billions of yuan.