Public consultation has commenced regarding the draft amendments to the E-commerce Law.
On July 4th, the State Administration for Market Regulation and the Ministry of Commerce initiated a public consultation period for the drafted "Amendments to the E-commerce Law of the People's Republic of China (Draft for Solicitation of Comments)". Officials from the relevant departments addressed questions regarding the motivations behind revising the law.
The primary considerations for amending the E-commerce law were outlined. The development of a healthy platform economy is a significant priority. As a fundamental legal framework in this domain, the E-commerce Law requires modifications to align with evolving economic and social needs.
One key reason is to foster mutually beneficial development for platform enterprises, merchants operating on platforms, and workers. E-commerce platforms, serving as pivotal entities within the platform economy, carry substantial social responsibilities. Amending the law aims to legally reinforce these social duties, better balance the interests of all parties, and provide a robust legal foundation for the healthy growth of the platform economy.
Another consideration is the need to uphold a fair competitive market environment. Platform operators play a crucial role in online market governance, possessing dual attributes as both market participants and managers. The amendments seek to refine the platform's legal liability framework, solidify their primary responsibilities, encourage stronger compliance initiatives, and foster a collaborative effort among business entities to cultivate a sound and healthy online marketplace.
Promoting high-quality economic development is also a driving factor. A well-regulated and orderly market is essential for the healthy operation of all business entities within the platform economy. The proposed changes aim to legislatively enhance regulatory mechanisms, improve oversight methods, and strengthen enforcement effectiveness. This is intended to guide platform economy participants to shift from a "traffic-first" mindset to one driven by innovation, and from competing solely on price to competing on quality, thereby better fostering the development of new quality productive forces and supporting the broader goal of high-quality development.
Furthermore, the amendments are designed to facilitate a higher level of openness. E-commerce is a key area for steadily expanding institutional openness and holds a significant position in global digital economy competition. The revisions will incorporate and improve provisions related to open cooperation, industry self-regulation, external countermeasures, consultations, and dispute resolution. This aims to further open up the e-commerce sector, creating a favorable legal environment for the orderly international expansion of Chinese e-commerce businesses.
The guiding principles for this round of amendments were also detailed. The revision process adheres to several core principles.
The first principle prioritizes the people's welfare, focusing on practical issues to strengthen the protection of rights for workers in new forms of employment, small and medium-sized merchants on e-commerce platforms, and consumers, thereby promoting mutually beneficial cooperation and shared development among all stakeholders.
The second principle emphasizes proportionality in penalties. It involves establishing a multi-tiered legal liability system with a gradient of penalties, ensuring that the severity of punishment matches the degree of violation, making the legal consequences more equitable and reasonable.
The third principle focuses on systematic governance. It aims to build a coordinated, multi-party collaborative governance system for the platform economy, bolstering industry self-discipline, reinforcing integrated online and offline supervision, and improving a tiered and categorized regulatory model.
The fourth principle stresses internal and external connectivity. It involves aligning with high-standard international economic and trade rules, expanding open cooperation, deepening rule convergence, authorizing external countermeasures, assisting enterprises in their overseas expansion, safeguarding their legitimate rights and interests, and enhancing the international competitiveness of China's e-commerce sector.
The main content of the draft amendments was summarized. The draft for solicitation of comments primarily encompasses five aspects.
Firstly, it expands the scope of legal regulation. Beyond the current focus on platforms and platform-based merchants, it further clarifies the rights and obligations of other participants in the platform economy. Secondly, it improves the platform liability system. Building upon existing fixed-amount fines and orders to suspend business for rectification, it introduces a richer array of regulatory tools to support normalized supervision. Thirdly, it defines a collaborative regulatory mechanism. In response to the cross-border and mixed operations characteristic of the platform economy, it adds the principle of consistent management for online and offline business lines, strengthening integrated oversight through inter-departmental coordination and central-local collaboration.
Fourthly, it addresses prominent illegal activities in e-commerce. It focuses on issues that have drawn strong public concern in practice, amending and refining relevant clauses to effectively address societal issues. Fifthly, it deepens e-commerce openness and cooperation. It promotes the alignment and compatibility of e-commerce rules, regulations, management, and standards with international norms, strengthens industry self-regulation, guides orderly expansion overseas, adds external countermeasure provisions, and protects the legitimate rights and interests of enterprises.
Finally, the next steps regarding the E-commerce Law amendments were indicated. Following the public consultation period, the State Administration for Market Regulation and the Ministry of Commerce will refine the draft amendments based on the feedback received. They will then work to advance the amendments for enactment as soon as possible, aiming to solidify the legal foundation for innovation and the healthy development of the platform economy.
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