Moutai, China's most famous brand of local liquor. [File Photo: 163.com]

A scandal involving pirated liquor is cooling enthusiasm on the markets for Chinese e-commerce giant Vipshop.

Vipshop has apologized for its lack of transparency in handling the incident as some said that the website had sold fake Moutai liquor and the case has been dragging on for over two weeks.

Vipshop’s share has been moved down 20 percent since the scandal broke right around Christmas.

The company has pledged that it will refund money to people who bought fakes.

Meantime, it has also promised to suspend selling all brands of liquor.

Moutai is China's most famous brand of local liquor.

An individual bottle of Moutai usually costs more than 1,000 yuan or 150 US dollars.