(Economic Observation) China's e-commerce platform is frequently trapped.
China News Service, Beijing, September 14th, title: China's e-commerce platform is frequently trapped in "two-choice one" dispute, and it is urgent to "a final decision"
China News Agency reporter Wang Qingkai
China's new e-commerce platform Love Inventory and Vipshop's "choose one" dispute has escalated.
Ai Inventory said on the 14th that it had reported its real-name report to four institutions including the State Administration for Market Regulation in response to Vipshop’s forcing merchants to “choose one of two”.
However, Vipshop has previously publicly responded that the accusation of Ai Stock is not true.
One of its staff members told a reporter from China News Agency on the 14th that the love inventory is a "ceramic hype" and does not want to take up public resources to respond.
"Two-choice one" law application problem to be solved
The so-called "choice of two" means that some e-commerce companies require merchants to only provide goods or services on this platform, and must not or in disguise require that merchants not operate on other platforms at the same time.
In fact, there is a widespread phenomenon of "choose one out of two" in the Internet industry. Gome and Suning, JD and Suning, JD and Dangdang, and even Meituan and Ele.me have also fought over this.
It can be traced back to the "3Q war" between Tencent and 360.
Vipshop has joined forces with JD to boycott Tmall’s “choose one” behavior.
In 2017, Vipshop and JD jointly issued a statement stating that Tmall abused its dominant position in the market to coerce merchants and stifled the fair competition in the market environment.
Does the e-commerce platform's mandatory "choice of two" for merchants hit the legal bottom line?
E-commerce platforms have their own opinions, and legal experts also have different opinions.
Some people say that this is to bully the big and the strong to bully the weak, which is suspected of illegal monopoly. Others think that the e-commerce platform "choose one" is in line with business logic.
Liu Xiaochun, executive director of the Internet Rule of Law Research Center of the University of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told a reporter from China News Agency that it is not easy to conduct investigations on e-commerce platforms under the "Anti-Monopoly Law of the People's Republic of China".
Xue Jun, deputy dean of Peking University Law School and director of the E-commerce Law Research Center, also told a reporter from China News Agency that in terms of the legal regulation of "choose one" behavior, the threshold of the "Anti-Monopoly Law of the People's Republic of China" is higher. , Must face the extremely complicated relevant market definition, market share determination and the identification of abuse.
In fact, the determination of commercial monopoly on a global scale is a difficult problem.
The complexity of the Internet industry further increases the difficulty of monopoly determination.
Taking the famous "3Q War" as an example, the Supreme Court of China still ruled that Qihoo 360 lost the lawsuit against the background that Tencent QQ occupies an absolute dominance in the Internet social field.
Up to now, China has not produced a case of anti-monopoly administrative enforcement investigations in the Internet field.
Moreover, e-commerce platforms now require merchants to "choose one of the two" more covertly, which has evolved from a clear requirement at the beginning to a suggestion.
If merchants do not follow suit, the platform will directly use technical means to search for merchants, lower their rights and block them.
"Choose one of two" can not harm businesses and consumers
The bottom line for businesses to "choose one of two" should not harm consumers.
Xue Jun believes that if "choice of two" does bring about serious consequences, we should try to strictly control rather than entangle the application of the law.
"If there are very serious negative consequences, they should be strictly controlled, and there is no need to label a monopoly or unfair competition before action can be taken."
But this requires a clear definition of "choice of two".
Liu Xiaochun told reporters that the current term "choose one out of two" is rather vague and needs to be clearly defined.
She believes that traditional exclusive transactions are not necessarily illegal. Usually exclusive transactions or restrictive transaction conditions set in advance belong to the scope of business autonomy of enterprises.
However, if the scope of the conduct exceeds a specific limit and scope and has a negative impact on competition and market order, there may be a need for legal intervention.
Xue Jun also said that if the platform communicates with the merchant in advance, it is clear that if the merchant "chooses one of the two" will receive the platform's funding, traffic and promotion support, such behavior can be regarded as an exclusive transaction and it is hard to say that it is illegal; There was no notification, but it was informed afterwards that the merchants must "choose one of the two", and the merchants could not get the support from the platform after the "choose one" and other exchanges. Such "choose one" behavior is hardly legal.
In other words, to determine whether "choose one of the two" has touched the bottom line of unfair competition, it depends on whether the platform has notified the merchants in advance, not "playing the dark"; there is also the issue of "degree", if the merchant is forced to withdraw from others Platforms and opaque handling methods such as traffic reduction rights for merchants on other platforms may exceed this "degree".
The relevant person in charge of the Network Transaction Supervision and Administration Department of the State Administration for Market Regulation said in Hangzhou last year that he would conduct an anti-monopoly investigation on the "choice of two" e-commerce platforms.
Legal experts told the China News Agency reporter that if relevant departments can quickly settle the "choice of two" disputes that linger in the industry, it will be of great benefit to regulating the development order of China's e-commerce industry and safeguarding consumer interests in the future.
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