After the last wave of crazy sales promotion in 2018, shopping agents ushered in a special new year. Since yesterday, the e-commerce law of the people's Republic of China (hereinafter referred to as the e-commerce law) has been officially implemented. What is the impact of the implementation of the e-commerce law on the ordinary people who live by purchasing on behalf of others? Let's understand that at present, the purchasing agents seem to be holding a wait-and-see attitude.
Buy on behalf and wear the "tight hoop curse"
"With the implementation of the e-commerce law in 2019, all commodities are cleared up, and many commodities are sold at a loss after full reduction. Please seize the last opportunity to stock up. "After all, after the implementation of the e-commerce law in 2019, the price of most products will increase, let alone lose money like this, so the baby who wants to store goods will seize the opportunity." & hellip; & hellip; at the end of last year, many agency stores have started clearance sales, and netizens have also hoarded goods, because since 2019, the agency purchase business may not be as easy as before.
Since January 1, 2019, the e-commerce law has been formally implemented, which stipulates that e-commerce operators shall register market entities and fulfill their tax obligations in accordance with the law. E-commerce law also defines e-commerce operators, that is, natural persons, legal persons and non legal organizations engaged in business activities of selling goods or providing services through information networks such as the Internet, including e-commerce platform operators, platform operators and e-commerce operators who sell goods or provide services through self built network stations and other network services.
This also means that the overseas purchasing by individuals previously in the legal blind area will be restricted and included in the scope of supervision. Whether it's selling goods in wechat friends circle, carrying goods on the live platform, or opening a shopping agency on Taobao, it will be listed as an e-commerce operator. According to the e-commerce law, operators can be fined up to 2 million yuan in case of violation.
For the purchasing group, this winter is not peaceful. The purchasing group has been checked repeatedly, which makes the group tense. In early November last year, the owner of a Taobao store called "TSHOW imported clothing" even went to jail. "Dear friends, please forgive me for leaving without saying goodbye. I am now in Guangzhou Women's prison. I have been sentenced to 10 years for doing import purchasing for this shop, and I will be fined 5.5 million yuan & hellip; & hellip; 'the owner you Yan wrote in an apology letter. According to the final judgment of Guangdong High Court, Youyan smuggled clothes worth more than 11.4 million yuan and evaded the payable tax by more than 3 million yuan. The court sentenced You Yan to 10 years and 5.5 million yuan for smuggling ordinary goods.
The quality of goods purchased on behalf of others will be more guaranteed
Because it is not restricted by laws and regulations, wechat business attracts more and more people to enter the industry with the characteristics of low threshold and high return. Industry data shows that in recent years, the number of micro business employees in China has grown rapidly. From 2014 to 2017, the number of micro business employees in China increased from 7.52 million to 2018 million.
However, with the development of the purchasing industry, many problems arise. Tax evasion, fake goods flooding, personal information disclosure, after-sales shirking responsibility & hellip; in the explosive 'barbaric growth' of wechat business, consumer disputes emerge in endlessly, and consumers have been in a weak position in the transaction.
E-commerce law provides a "good recipe" for the chaos of buying on behalf of others. In the future, the purchasing agent must hold the business license of both the purchasing country and China, and fulfill the tax obligation according to law. In addition, those who sell food also need to apply for the relevant food circulation license; products without Chinese label cannot be sold on the network platform without national certification.
However, after the overseas purchasing agency is included in the category of operators, the profit space of purchasing agency is reduced to a certain extent. Many consumers are worried that they will have to pay more to find a substitute to buy things in the future. Some agency stores revealed the signal of price increase in 2019 when clearing and selling at the end of the year.
Dong Yizhi, a special researcher of e-commerce research center and lawyer of Shanghai Yida law firm, believes that in the long run, the promulgation of the law will make the overseas purchasing agency in the current regulatory blind area have rules to follow, and the illegal cost of purchasing agency will increase. For consumers, the price of goods may rise, but the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. In this way, not only the quality of goods can be guaranteed, but also the rights and interests of consumers can be protected in the after-sales rights protection and other links. In his view, the overseas purchasing market will not decline, on the contrary, it will develop well and orderly within the framework of law.
How to supervise wechat friend circle purchasing?
When the new year comes, buyers also need to find a new way, go or stay. At present, most people are still waiting.
As a supporting policy of e-commerce law, at the beginning of December last year, the General Administration of Market Supervision issued the opinions on doing well in the registration of e-commerce operators, which mentioned that if an e-commerce operator applies for registration as an individual industrial and commercial household, it is allowed to register the network business place as a business place, and in addition, it is allowed to register the habitual residence as a residence. However, the self-employed industrial and commercial households registered with the network business place as the business place can only carry out business activities through the Internet, and shall not arbitrarily change the use of their residential houses for offline production and business activities, and shall make relevant commitments.
What bothers some wechat businesses is that they usually only send commodity information in wechat friends circle, without fixed business place and website. How should they register for Industry and Commerce?
According to Dong Yizhi, wechat business in wechat friend circle is one of the difficulties in implementing the new e-commerce law, and also one of the significance of launching the e-commerce law. "From the relatively private circle to the commercialization, after the boundary is gradually blurred, the problem of how to supervise has been thrown out, but this is also the progress of this e-commerce law, which is still included in the scope of supervision, starting from the essence of transactions, not limited to the definition of wechat friend circle, and focusing on market security to regulate it. 'he thinks,' there must be difficulties, but it's not that there is no operability. '
According to the opinions, local market supervision departments should carry out the implementation and refine the implementation measures in combination with local conditions. On December 19, 2018, Hangzhou Municipal Market Supervision Bureau issued a notice to solicit public opinions on the measures for the registration of market subjects of e-commerce operators in Hangzhou, which said that the business location is not in Hangzhou, but the e-commerce operators engaged in e-commerce activities through the e-commerce platform in Hangzhou can choose to register the market subjects in Hangzhou. This means that businesses opening stores in Taobao can register in Hangzhou even if they are not in Hangzhou, but there are also concerns that such cross regional supervision will be difficult to operate. At present, the measures have been completed for comments and have not yet been officially promulgated.
After the laws and regulations raise the entry threshold, the agent purchase industry will speed up the reshuffle. According to the analysis of e-commerce practitioners, standardized cross-border e-commerce will usher in new opportunities. Previously, problems such as the proliferation of fake goods, price war and loss of customers caused by purchasing on behalf of others will be improved.