New regulations for online transactions in China

Two new important regulations enacted by the Ministry of Commerce: the E-commerce Pattern Regulation and Online Shopping Service Regulation should be observed by the public to strengthen the control on online transactions in China.

Due to new two regulations each area of e-commerce business has its own standards and the system of rules. They correspond to Business to Business, Business to Commerce, Commerce to Commerce and Government to Business online transactions.                                                             

In consequence of statutory obligations all online store operators must have a legal entity qualification and must give information about their business license, taxation registration certification, special service license, business address and contact details on the home page of their e-commerce Web sites. As for individuals, they must use their real names accomplishing transactions and the parties conducting C2C must be physical persons and not business entities.

According to the rules, users' registration information must be kept in database of e-commerce operators for at least ten years, plus each web site should also have options of features of online safe payment, such as ID certification and e-signatures and others which should be run by qualified third-parties.

And regulations add that e-commerce platforms must not deal with unqualified or unlicensed companies such as those who supply the market with harmful goods. Online transactions on special goods like pharmaceuticals and medical instruments are also prohibited.