[E-Commerce Quick Review] Lawyers Of E-Commerce Center Comment On Luxury Goods Sales Of E-Commerce Platform Sellers

On July 28, domestic The third-party seller of luxury goods on the e-commerce platform was exposed, which pushed a large number of well-known e-commerce platforms, such as JumeiYoupin, JD, Amazon China, No. 1 Store, Gome Online, and Zouxu.com, to the air of public opinion. The protagonist of this storm, "Xiangpeng Hengye", is actually a small trading company.

JD responded that it has closed and investigated the "Baina Fashion" stores, and will impose heavy penalties on the fake stores in the future. And provide unconditional return service to consumers who purchase the products of the store.

JD said in the statement that it would further strictly sort out the platform sellers and conduct more strict qualification review on the merchants settled in. In addition, if the third-party platform is found to be involved in fake businesses, it will also work with the industry and commerce department to check the fake goods.

JumeiYoupin issued a statement saying that it had closed the store of "Xiangpeng Hengye" and had all its products removed from the third-party platform. In the statement, he also said that he would never condone merchants on third-party platforms that hurt consumers' interests. It is not excluded to take relevant legal measures against "Xiangpeng Hengye" according to the final investigation. And ensure that it will maintain 100% transparency, and follow-up information will be continuously and timely released to the public.

At the same time, Jumei said that this problem was caused by the defects of the luxury third-party platform model itself, and the platform vendors could not conduct strong supervision on it because of the direct third-party delivery. The third party platform business of luxury goods is the business carried out by Jumeixin. Although Jumei has repeatedly strengthened its supervision, it is still very secretive. In terms of beauty products in its main business, Jumei has recently launched new regulatory measures, such as chromatographic detection, authenticity alliance, etc., but the defects in the model of the luxury third-party platform itself make the spot check less powerful than beauty products.

related data

According to the data monitoring of China E-Commerce Research Center (100EC. CN), by the end of 2011, the scale of China's luxury online shopping market reached 10.7 billion yuan, with a growth rate of 67.2%. In 2012, the scale of luxury online shopping reached 15.45 billion yuan, with a year-on-year growth of 44.4%. In 2013, the scale of luxury e-commerce transactions reached 20.82 billion yuan, up 34.8% year on year.

It can be seen from the data that online shopping of luxury goods has entered people's lives in recent years. With the change of consumption concept, the improvement of consumption ability and the pursuit of international brands by Chinese people, luxury goods have considerable market space in China. 2011 was a year of rapid development of luxury e-commerce, followed by a relatively slow growth rate of luxury e-commerce.

Analyst opinion

In order to more comprehensively analyze the impact of this event on domestic luxury e-commerce, special researchers of China E-Commerce Research Center and nationally renowned e-commerce lawyers have published this comment (please pay attention to more analysts' comments, the center's WeChat public account: i100EC)， For the reference of consumers and e-commerce professionals.

In this regard, Dong Yizhi, a special researcher of China E-commerce Research Center and lawyer of Liaoning Asia Pacific Law Firm, believes that:

——The seller of luxury goods on e-commerce platform sells fake goods, which is related to the loopholes in the platform's supervision and review of third-party trading companies

According to the Administrative Measures for Online Transactions and other relevant laws and regulations, one of the criteria for determining whether the e-commerce platform bears joint and several liabilities with fake suppliers is whether the e-commerce platform is intentional, informed and acquiescent. According to the regulations, e-commerce platforms are platform providers of online transactions. If they know or should know that sellers or service providers use their platforms to infringe upon the legitimate rights and interests of consumers and fail to take necessary measures, they shall bear joint and several liabilities with the sellers or service providers according to law.

However, the "necessary measures" stipulated by the law are vague and not specific enough. This also gives e-commerce platforms a stitch that can be inserted. It can be seen from the official websites of various e-commerce platforms that they have set their own standards, requirements, conditions and review restrictions on merchants. However, the purpose of many restrictions is not to safeguard consumers' rights and interests, but to prove that they have fulfilled their responsibilities of review and supervision, which has become the amulet of exemption from responsibility.

There is no free lunch, of course, there is no free trade. Although for some platform merchants who walk along the river and step on the gray edge, neither consumers nor industrial and commercial administration departments can start. But the user's eyes are bright. The reputation of the platform is damaged, which is the biggest disaster compared with the consumer's rights protection compensation and the punishment of the regulatory department.

In this regard, Wang Bingjie, a special researcher of China E-Commerce Research Center and lawyer of Zhejiang Jindao Law Firm, believes that:

——The legal liability of platform e-commerce sellers for selling counterfeit goods should be viewed differently

For example, e-commerce directly sells goods to the outside world by looking for suppliers. During the sales period, there is no information about any third party suppliers. Based on this form of sales, it can be considered that JumeiYoupin has a direct business relationship with consumers. Once the sales fees buy fake goods, JumeiYoupin can be directly required to bear at least the "one for one" responsibility for selling fake goods.

If the third party seller on the e-commerce platform sells fake goods, and such sales occur between the third party seller and the consumer, the third party seller should first bear the liability for compensation. If the e-commerce platform has regulatory negligence or is unable to provide third-party seller information, it also needs to bear certain responsibility.

In this regard, Yao Xiaojuan, a special researcher of China E-commerce Research Center and lawyer of Zhejiang Tiance Law Firm, believes that:

——Consumers know that luxury goods and fakes are still purchased because they satisfy vanity

First, e-commerce needs to take responsibility for the proliferation of fake luxury goods. It is easy to see from the report that the so-called brand authorization letters of suppliers are basically forged; As an e-commerce company, the authenticity of its authorization should be verified before the brand is settled. However, in order to seek benefits, e-commerce may only make superficial efforts and carry out formal review, which in some sense connives at such behavior. As a supplier, its legal liability for forging documents and selling infringing goods is not limited to civil matters, and may be suspected of criminal offences.

Second, as consumers, they sell luxury goods at unreasonably low prices. It is believed that most consumers are willing to buy luxury goods even though they know they are fake goods, because these fake goods satisfy vanity. It is demand that leads to supply. However, this kind of supply is really an illegal act.

In this regard, Zhao Zhan, a special researcher of China E-Commerce Research Center and lawyer of Beijing Zhilin Law Firm, believes that:

——Third party platform seller selling fake e-commerce platform shall bear joint liability

Jumei and Jingdong have their own businesses as well as other businesses. This exposure of the sale of counterfeit goods belongs to the latter, and Jumei and Jingdong belong to the online trading platform providers specified in the new consumer law. According to the new consumer law, online trading platform providers need to bear legal responsibility in three cases: first, they cannot provide the real name, address and effective contact information of the seller or service provider; Second, making commitments that are more conducive to consumers; Third, those who know or should know that a seller or a service provider infringes upon the legitimate rights and interests of consumers by using its platform without taking necessary measures shall bear joint and several liabilities with the seller or service provider according to law.

As far as this incident is concerned, Jumei and JD are mainly responsible for the latter two situations. For example, if they make some compensation commitment for fake goods, they should honor the commitment. In addition, it is necessary to prove that he/she does not know or should not know about the counterfeit sales behavior of the merchants in residence, otherwise he/she may be jointly and severally liable.