New e-Commerce law in force (China)

In recent years, China’s e-commerce market has boomed and is now the world’s largest. In recognition of this, China has introduced its first comprehensive legislative framework governing e-commerce activities.

Why does it matter?

The new e-commerce law has several highlights to protect brand owners and consumers. The key changes affecting retailers include:

IP protection

• All e-commerce businesses will be required to register with an official body to obtain a business licence, except for individuals selling self-produced agricultural products, home-made handicrafts etc.
  
  
• E-commerce platforms will be held jointly responsible with merchants if they know or should know counterfeit items are sold. If the e-commerce platform operator fails to act on a report of counterfeit violations, they will face penalties of up to 2,000,000 RMB.
  
  
• The new law provides for a “notice and take down – counter notice and recovery” procedure. It is worth noting that upon receiving the counter notice, the rights owner shall lodge a complaint or file a lawsuit within 15 days. Otherwise, the platform operator will promptly terminate all measures it has adopted.

Unfair competition

• All operators online and offline will have fair competition obligations.

Reinforced consumer rights

• E-commerce operators will be banned from fabricating sales statistics and posting false user reviews and/or deleting genuine reviews. Also merchants must clearly disclose any unfair conditions they place on sales and cannot simply assume consumers’ consent.