A Study On The Safety Obligations Of E-commerce Platform Operators

Internet technology is changing rapidly and the e-commerce economy has gradually developed into the production and sale of goods and the provision of services.The e-commerce trading platform has brought convenience and efficiency to people’s daily lives and economic benefits to the e-commerce platform,but it has also given rise to many social problems,the most prominent of which is the occurrence of infringement.This article compares and analyses civil judgments on the security obligations of e-commerce platforms.From the existing cases,it can be seen that there is no unified adjudication path and scale for the security obligations of e-commerce platforms in judicial practice.Through a typology of cases,it can be found that in the judicial practice of the safety and security obligations of e-commerce platform operators,there are three problems: firstly,the specific content of the safety and security obligations of e-commerce platforms is unclear;secondly,what is the reasonable boundary range for e-commerce platform operators to fulfill their safety and security obligations? Finally,from the perspective of liability,what is the specific form of the "corresponding liability" that the e-commerce platform operator should assume when failing to meet its safety obligations? In response to the above questions,this article concludes the following conclusions through a case-by-case analysis: firstly,the content of the platform’s security obligations should include the obligation to audit;secondly,the content of the obligation to audit includes both the audit of qualifications and the audit of the merchant’s identity information,and in the area of consumer life and health,a stricter standard of the obligation to audit applies;thirdly,neither the formal nor the substantive audit can guarantee the safety of the merchant.Thirdly,neither formal nor substantive auditing can protect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers,so this paper suggests that the standard of "dynamic auditing" should be applied to monitor and manage merchants’ information in real time;fourthly,as the formal auditing obligation is a statutory obligation,the standard for failure to meet the formal auditing obligation is higher than that for failure to meet the substantive auditing obligation.Fifth,on the issue of whether the specific content of the security obligation should be explicitly stipulated,this paper analyzes and concludes that the purpose of the security obligation legislation is to provide a reference for the standard of obligation,therefore,the security obligation of e-commerce platform operators does not and should not have a specific content of obligation.Secondly,the definition of the scope of the platform’s security obligations should take into account the costs incurred by the e-commerce platform in fulfilling its security obligations,the ability of the platform’s foresee-ability of danger and the possibility of consumers’ own risk aversion.The higher the cost incurred,the weaker the platform’s ability to foresee the danger and the greater the possibility of consumers themselves avoiding the risk,the lower the standard of the platform’s security obligations.Finally,for the e-commerce platform to violate the security obligations of such a number of tort mode,should take into account the fault of the tort perpetrators and the size of the cause of the consequences of the damage dynamic adjustment of its responsibility,in specific judicial practice,the e-commerce platform operators "corresponding responsibility" of the legal application should be distinguished between two situations:one is to belong to the Special law provisions of the situation,should be given priority to the application of special law;two non-special law provisions of the situation,should be from the extent of its obligations and the causal relationship with the consequences of damage to determine the tort liability.Among them,the e-commerce platform operators violate the formal review obligations belong to direct infringement,shall bear joint and several liability;violation of the substantive review obligations belong to indirect infringement,shall bear supplementary liability;violation of other types of security obligations,shall bear proportional liability according to the specific proportion.