The E-commerce Law of the People’s Republic of China (hereinafter referred to as “the E-commerce Law”) was recently adopted at the Fifth Session of the Standing Committee of the 13th National People's Congress. It is scheduled to go into effect on January 1^st, 2019.

The adopted E-commerce Law added another clause to Article 18 that was not present in previous drafts. The clause will require e-commerce operators to observe applicable provisions of the PRC Advertising Law when mailing advertisements to consumers. Additionally, with respect to the legal liability of e-commerce operators, Article 83 provides that where an operator of an e-commerce platform violates Article 38 by not taking necessary measures against practices of operators on its platform that impair the lawful rights and interests of consumers, or by failing to fulfill its obligation to examine the qualifications of operators on its platform, or by failing to fulfill its obligation to ensure security for consumers, the market regulation authorities shall order it to remedy its violation and may impose a fine of more than CNY50,000 but less than CNY500,000. Where the case is serious, it shall order the operator to suspend its business operations and may impose a fine of more than CNY500,000 but less than CNY2 million. Certain textual changes have also been made to the law.

 (Source: www.npc.gov.cn)