China’s Department of Commerce Wants to Get Tough on E-Commerce

The Department of Commerce (via Xinhua)

E-commerce has exploded in China, with more and more users buying stuff from clothes to computers online. But as the market expands, so too have customer complaints. Now, China’s Department of Commerce is stepping in to try to straighten a few things out.

The Nanfang Daily learned yesterday that the department plans to punish e-commerce companies that break promises they’ve made to consumers by forcing them out of the market entirely. It’s not exactly clear how that would work, but the article specifically mentions retailers and third party vendors who cancel orders for no reason in the run-up to this Spring Festival as a group the department wants to eliminate. (Unscrupulous retailers will sometimes allow customers to order products with impunity and simply cancel orders with no explanation when they run out of stock).

It’s not clear how any of this will actually work, but the Department of Commerce is trying to attach some teeth to its fighting words, reportedly pushing the State Council to include regulations for internet retail management in its legal plan for this year.

[Nanfang Daily via Sina Tech]