Online shopping regs urged by SPC

On the third day of the Two Sessions, delegates from Shanghai People's Congress (SPC) said that local regulations should be adopted to protect consumers' rights and interests regarding online purchases, an industry forecast by local authorities to produce 100 billion yuan ($15.83 billion) in online transactions by 2015.

By the end of June last year, the number of online transactions had already amounted to a total of 249.5 billion yuan, up nearly 25 percent, or 24.77 percent from the same period for the previous year, according to figures from the city's commission of commerce.

The situation calls for a bill that ultimately seeks to protect the rights of consumers, said delegates Thursday, adding that such rules are needed as online shopping becomes increasingly popular.

"More and more online disputes are surfacing nowadays, and consumers need a way to protect their rights," SPC delegate Yin Bangqi, also director of the State-run Shanghai Science and Technology Award Center, who initiated the proposal supported by fellow delegates, told the Global Times Thursday. "The existing consumer protection laws were made in 2002, and are outdated - there are no clauses concerning online shopping."

Sales fraud and the selling or leaking of personal information concern the most common disputes arising from online shopping, said Yin.

"But without specific laws governing the malpractices, it's hard to determine which party or parties should be held responsible, or what kinds of liabilities ought to be assigned," he added.

Moreover, consumers are often put in disadvantageous positions when asking for compensation for losses incurred by product defects or items failing to arrive at all, as many vendors have gotten away with opening online shops without registering their true identities, said Yin.

Delegates advised city officials to adopt a bill that would not only order and enforce vendors to register their websites under a real-name registration system, but also hold them accountable to paying income taxes on their annual earnings.

Such a move would, in turn, further prompt vendors to pay more attention to product quality, as they would be required to provide invoices for purchases, said Yin.