The Department of Information Technology of the Ministry of Commerce and Beijing Municipal Commission of Commerce co-sponsored “Forum on Third-Party E-commerce Platform 2011—Honest Operation, Trustily, Regulated Services” in Beijing on April 12 in a bid to advocate the business service concept of good-faith, improve e-commerce development environment and promote its sound development. In the Forum, the Ministry of Commerce published Guidelines on Third-Party E-commerce Platform Services (hereinafter referred as “Guidelines”); participants discussed and exchanged views on the current situation of China’s e-commerce development and hot issues, and made investigation tours to e-commerce companies in Beijing. Vice Minister of Commerce Jiang Zengwei and Vice Mayor of Beijing Cheng Hong attended the Forum and delivered a speech respectively.

The Department of Information Technology of the Ministry of Commerce and Beijing Municipal Commission of Commerce co-sponsored “Forum on Third-Party E-commerce Platform 2011—Honest Operation, Trustily, Regulated Services” in Beijing on April 12 in a bid to advocate the business service concept of good-faith, improve e-commerce development environment and promote its sound development. In the Forum, the Ministry of Commerce published Guidelines on Third-Party E-commerce Platform Services (hereinafter referred as “Guidelines”); participants discussed and exchanged views on the current situation of China’s e-commerce development and hot issues, and made investigation tours to e-commerce companies in Beijing. Vice Minister of Commerce Jiang Zengwei and Vice Mayor of Beijing Cheng Hong attended the Forum and delivered a speech respectively.

Vice Minister Jiang pointed out in his speech that e-commerce has become an important economic form and way of modern circulation in China. It permeates into production, circulation and consumption, and makes changes in traditional mode of operation and management, and the organization of production. The Ministry of Commerce always devotes itself to creating political and legal environment conductive to the sound and orderly development of e-commerce and on-line shopping, and will continue working together with relevant departments to promote the application and popularization of e-commerce.

Under the new situation of the ongoing campaign to crack down on activities related to copyright infringement and the production and sale of fake and counterfeit products nationwide in the sector of on-line shopping, publication of the Guidelines is to promote the healthy and harmonious development of e-commerce and on-line shopping, establish and perfect a permanent and effective mechanism for promoting the normalization as to realize development, regulate and guide the operation activities of the third-party e-commerce , and to protect the legal rights and benefits of enterprises and customers, and create a transaction environment that is fair, good-faith and secured.

Vice Minister Jiang asked all commercial departments nationwide, based on characteristics of their local e-commerce development and practical situations, encourage third-party e-commerce platforms to operate in accordance with the Guidelines, further enhance inspection and guidance to such platform, and to discover new mode of the e-commerce development which is not only in conformity with local practical situation but also in conformity with objective laws, and do a good job in publicity, popularization, and training of the Guidelines.

Guidelines on Third-party E-commerce Platform Services have 32 articles in 9 chapters, and spelled out responsibilities and protect rights of all parties involved in 5 aspects: the establishment of platform and code of conduct, management and guidance of platform users by platform owners, legal protection for consumers, coordination and supervision of relevant service providers.

Those attended the Forum were officials from National Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Ministry of Science and Technology, People’s Bank of China, General Administration of Chinese Customs, State Administration for Industry & Commerce, General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, General Administration of Press and Publication, State Intellectual Property Office, and commercial departments nationwide, representatives of famous e-commerce enterprises, e-commerce experts and scholars.