| Online trading is a new and increasingly popular trading model developed from the changes and developments of traditional trading methods. Consumption is a very core link element in the national economic development, and consumers’shopping experience is the inner determiner of positive development of consumption, therefore when problems arise, the specific characteristics of the online trading model and a proper principle of liability identification for torts should be recognized, and reasonable compensation should be offered to the infringed.A considerable number of studies existed in the online trading area, such as the pure study of the relationship between the different parties in the online trading, the study of the legal status of online platform providers, and the study of our country’s e-commerce legislation from a strategically aspect of view. However, previous studies lacked considerations of concluding specific cases of legal practice, observing the online trading development situations, and recognizing the basic legal status of online platform providers according to different online trading models. Studies are badly needed on the duty of online platform providers, the principle of liability identification and infringement determination. Therefore, this study focused on the liability issue of online trading platform providers in the online trading process, essentially the issue of how to determine the particularity of the rights and how to protect the rights. This study demonstrated this issue in five parts according to the logic of dominant roles of liability bearing:In the first part, the researcher sorted out current arguments of the topic and raised the research questions. In this study, three typical cases from legal practice are included. The researcher studied from the types of infringement and the legal basis of court trials, and concluded several focuses and contradictions in the infringement cases of online trading platform providers. Moreover, the researcher provided a review of the contemporary theorists’ study achievements of online platform providers’legal status, liability identification principle, "Red Flag Rule" and "Safe Harbor Rule" and the subjects of this study-the differences of the legal status, liability identification principles and the infringement composition elements of online trading platform providers under different trading methods.In the second part, the researcher analyzed two current mainstream online trading models-B2C and C2C. The boundaries which should be clearly clarified and the improperness of the "one size fits all" decisions in the online trading infringement cases were also demonstrated in this section. Moreover, the researcher provided a further study on the recent popular coupon model and clarified the legal status of this model.The third part analyzed the legal status of online trading platform providers in detail and compared some mainstream theories in this field such as Intermediary Theory, Counter Leasing Theory, Joint Operation Theory and Technique Providing Theory, and illustrated their rationality and the reason why they were not taken into consideration. Moreover, continued from the second part, the researcher clarified the legal status of platform providers under various trading models, recognized the subject identity and related legal relationships of them under each trading model.In the fourth and fifth part, the researcher analyzed the platform providers’ duties and the source of duties according to different legal status of platform providers under different trading models. This section also discussed the applicable liability identification principal’s differences and boundaries, and analyzed the infringement composition elements.Online trading will continue booming. Before the legislation of e-commerce, the questions of how to determine the liability of platform providers in the online trading infringement cases and what kind of duty they have in the legal practice is still to be solved. If these issues could be settled, rights-holders can be better protected, consumers’ confidence and reliability can be enhanced, and e-commerce will be further developed. All these above are of great significance both in social economic and legal aspects. |
PDF Full Text Request