(Ecns.cn)--Taobao Mall, China's largest B2C (business-to-consumer) online retailing platform, released new rules on Monday in a bid to protect consumers by imposing harsher punishments on its online retailers and charging higher annual technical service fees from them.
According to the new rules, penalties for retailers selling fake goods will be five times the total price of the goods, while annual technical service fees have been raised from 6,000 yuan to 30,000-60,0000 yuan. Retailers will also have to compensate consumers for false descriptions of goods and delayed deliveries.
"The higher service fees are to urge retailers to improve their services," explained Zhang Yong, Taobao Mall's president. "The company has set up a technical service fee return system, based on which Taobao Mall will refund each retailer part or all of its annual service fee according to its scale of operation and quality of service."
In addition, Taobao Mall now also requires its retailers to pay security deposits and will withhold at least 10,000 yuan to be used as consumer protection funds if they were found selling fake goods.
Insiders at Taobao Mall commented that the new rules will effectively crack down on illegal transactions since retailers will have to pay much higher prices for fake commodities.
