Research On Legal Status Of E-commerce Platforms

In the recent years,the e-commerce in China apparently plat-formalized,and the importance of e-commerce platform has been rapidly increasing.However,the law community has many debates on the legal nature of the e-commerce platform,and no universe opinion has been adopted.During the drafting of E-commerce Law,the legal nature of the e-commerce platform is the essential question.The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress called on attention to the legal relationship between the e-commerce platform and consumers during their two reviews of the initial drafts of the E-commerce Law.Therefore,it is of academic value to understand the legal nature of the e-commerce platforms,as well as the legal relationship between the e-commerce platform and consumers.Such understanding would also provide practical guidance to the steady development of e-commerce,determination of the relationship among the concerned parties,protection for consumers and legislation related to e-commerce.The core opinion of this essay is that e-commerce platform is not the unilateral party in such transaction;rather,general and special legal nature of the e-commerce should be specified depending on the service provided by the e-commerce platform and its involvement in the related transactions.Under the circumstance of general legal nature,the relationship between the e-commerce platform and consumers is indirect,and the e-commerce platform is not obligated to undertake liabilities towards consumers.Under the circumstance of special legal nature,the relationship between the e-commerce platform and consumers is direct,and the e-commerce platform is obligated to undertake contractual or tort liabilities towards consumers.The logic sequence of this essay is as follows:First,this essay discusses the transaction structure of e-commerce.By analyzing the cooperation model among e-commerce platform,operators on the e-commerce platform and consumers,the business relationship between the e-commerce platform and operators on the e-commerce platform is provided,which would lay foundation for the legal research going forward.Second,this essay classifies the general and special legal nature of the e-commerce platform based on its involvement of the e-commerce transactions,the way it get involved and its relationship to consumers.The general legal nature of e-commerce platform refers to the universe position of e-commerce platform in all transactions generated by e-commerce platform.The writer believes that the general legal nature of e-commerce is comprehensive which cannot be categorized by any typical legal nature in traditional civil law.Rather,the legal nature of the e-commerce platform should be labeled as the transaction platform provider,transaction rules designer,and concerned transaction party and transaction dispute mediator.The special legal nature of the e-commerce platform refers to the nature of the e-commerce platform in certain e-commerce contracts when the e-commerce platform and operators on such e-commerce platform are joint sellers and undertake several and joint contractual liabilities to consumers.The e-commerce platform will also bear tort liabilities to consumers during all the stages of e-commerce if the e-commerce violates its legal obligations.Given that the e-commerce platform serves special and significant role in solving e-commerce disputes as remedies to the consumers,this essay provides one chapter introducing the mediator rule of the e-commerce platform as the ending of the substantial part of this essay.Based on the structure of this essay,the brief introductions to each chapter are as follows:The first chapter is introduction.This chapter provides the research background,key research topic,academic and practical meaning of the research.In addition,this chapter also summarizes the current research outcomes in China and abroad,specifies the research scope,research difficulties and the core questions to be solved,as well as the research method and creativities.The second chapter is analysis of the cooperation model between the e-commerce platform and the operators on the e-commerce platform.Depending on the method and scope of such cooperation,the cooperation can be categorized as basic cooperation model and promotion cooperation model.Basic cooperation model refers to normal,stable and long-term cooperation model established pursuant to platform engagement service agreement or other similar arrangement between e-commerce platform and related operators.Under such business model,the e-commerce platform provides web space,virtual business place,transaction rules,transaction opportunities and information publication and other service.The operators may open stores on the e-commerce platform,utilize platform service,and sell goods and service to consumers.Generally,the operators should pay platform usage fee,commission and deposit to the e-commerce platform;however,under rare circumstances,operators are not required to pay the aforementioned fees to the e-commerce platform.Promotion cooperation model refers to the temporary,conditional and fixed-term cooperation model established pursuant to marketing cooperation agreement between the e-commerce platform and related operators,where the operators engage in specific promotions initiated or organized by the e-commerce platform.Under such model,operators will sign in the various promotions initiated or organized by the e-commerce platform.Upon the approval of the e-commerce platform,the operators provide goods and service to consumers.Generally,operators should pay the commissions for the promotions in addition to the due fees under basic cooperation model.When the operators engage in large sales promotion,operators are not required to pay the promotion commission separately,however,the e-commerce platform will have actual control of the transaction conditions.The purpose of distinguishing the different cooperation models between the e-commerce platform and operators is to observe the e-commerce platform's involvement and influence in the agreements between the operators on the e-commerce platform and consumers.Such observation is the basis to define the legal nature of the e-commerce platform,especially the legal relationship between the e-commerce platform and consumers.The third chapter is analysis of general legal nature of the e-commerce platform.Regardless of the cooperation model between the e-commerce platform and operators,the e-commerce platform provides basic service,including business place,transaction rules,transaction engagement and dispute resolution.The operators and consumes enter into transaction through the service provided by the e-commerce platform;however,the e-commerce platform is not a party to the transaction.It is impossible to define a single legal position of the e-commerce platform,given that the e-commerce platform provides various services.Therefore,it is more rational to define the general legal position of the e-commerce into detailed categories,including(i)transaction platform provider;(ii)transaction rules designer;(iii)concerned transaction party;and(iv)transaction dispute mediator.The forth chapter is analysis of special legal nature of the e-commerce platform.Under the general legal nature,we should further analyze the contractual and tort liabilities of the e-commerce platform to the consumers.The generally adopted theories in this regard are beneficiary theory,control theory and social cost control theory.Under the basic cooperation mode,the main function of the e-commerce platform is to provide transaction channel,technical service and other supporting service.However,the e-commerce platform is not a party to the transaction,and therefore it is not required to undertake contractual liability to the consumers.Under the promotion cooperation model,the e-commerce platform substantially controls the operators on the platform to certain extent,and engages in the transactions.Therefore,the e-commerce platform should be viewed as a party to the transaction,and be required to undertake several and joint liability to the customers based on the facts.During the e-commerce operation and dispute resolution,including the circumstance where the e-commerce platform violates its legal obligation and infringes the rights of consumers,the e-commerce platform should undertake tort liability to the consumers.The circumstances where e-commerce platform undertakes tort liability to consumers include false advertisement;false information;failure to provide operators' identity information to consumers;false transaction records;and false credit information.The fifth chapter is analysis of the e-commerce platform's role as a mediator.The dispute resolution mechanism is of great importance to solve the e-commerce disputes promptly,and through which the e-commerce platform serves as the mediator.This chapter analyzes the typical dispute resolution mechanism of e-commerce platform,and points out the problems in legitimacy,neutrality and fairness of e-commerce platform when serving as the mediator.Thereafter,this chapter provides detailed suggestions to improve the mediator role of the e-commerce platform.