An online shop in Taobao provides quarreling services. (Photo: Global Times)

An online service in which a "professional quarreler" will engage in an argument on your behalf has gone viral in China, prompting concerns over verbal abuse and its legitimacy.

The Global Times reporter found that some online shops on Taobao, a popular online shopping platform in China, claimed to provide professional argument services, including quarreling with customers' husbands and husbands' mistresses, at prices ranging from five yuan ($ 0.7) to 200 yuan for each session in Putonghua.

The price for quarreling in dialects, including Southwest China's Sichuan dialect and Guizhou dialect, is higher.

One anonymous employee of a shop on Taobao told the Global Times on Sunday that they could meet any requirements as long as the customer pays enough money, and they would still receive the fee even if they fail to win the argument.

"We usually sell this service more than 100 times per day and can help the customer by making a call or sending messages," said the employee.

Although netizens seem to be enjoying the service, online platforms are starting to remove them. 

"Taobao is starting to check and remove the shops. We will give them a warning first, and if they still offer the service, we will remove the shops from our system and fine them," Cai Yuwei, an employee from Taobao's customer service department, told the Global Times on Sunday.

Cai said the platform carries out random inspections on 50,000 to 100,000 online stores in Taobao each day, and those that violate the rules will be promptly dealt with. 

But the Global Times still found many shops on the platform offering argument services as of press time.

"Malicious verbal assaults are a form of infringement of rights. The customers, merchants and the shopping platform may bear criminal liability if the verbal abuse affects the normal lives of the victims," Liu Junhai, a business law professor at Renmin University of China, told the Global Times on Sunday.