Draft e-commerce law better protects consumer rights

China's draft e-commerce law was submitted to the top legislature for a third reading Tuesday, further regulating online market order and protecting consumer rights.

The latest draft will be reviewed at a four-day bimonthly session of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, which runs Tuesday to Friday.

"The draft law aims to further support and promote the development of e-commerce, regulate market order, and protect the legitimate rights and interests of all parties in e-commerce," Cong Bin, from the NPC Constitution and Law Committee, read in a report to the lawmakers.

Cong pointed out that the draft law would focus on the obligations and liabilities of e-commerce operators, especially platform operators.

According to the latest draft, e-commerce operators, while posting advertisements to consumers based on individual traits, must also push promotions not particularly targeted to respect and protect the rights and interests of consumers.

Having been reviewed in December 2016 and October 2017 by the NPC Standing Committee, the draft added that e-commerce operators must clearly point out tie-in sales, both products and services, to consumers, and cannot assume consent.

E-commerce operators with dominant market positions due to advantages in technology, number of users and capacity of industry control and high dependency on other operators cannot exclude or restrict competition.

China is the world largest e-commerce market, with online retail sales growing 32.2 percent year-on-year in 2017 to reach 7.18 trillion yuan (1.11 trillion U.S. dollars).