There has been a lot that has been said about the different e-commerce platforms around the world. We have seen that people have mostly blamed the major platforms such as Walmart, Alibaba and Amazons of the world. Now, we also know that people are not against e-commerce platforms. However, those against the e-commerce platforms are the traders who are operating in offline capacity who feared and have seen that their business is hurting due to these platforms. One solution for the traders, however, is that they can also start selling their products online which means that they can also benefit from the growing online platform.
But we are now seeing that the governments are also warning different e-commerce platforms around the world. According to a report from Reuters, the Chinese regulators have warned the e-commerce platforms against indulging in monopolistic practices. The major e-commerce platforms warned by the Chinese regulators are JD.com and Alibaba from China. The regulators say that they should stop doing activities that might be seen as monopolistic. This warning is given ahead of China’s biggest sale is coming up which is 11.11 Singles Day shopping event.
In a meeting with Chinese e-commerce platforms, the Chinese regulators urged the platforms to stop indulging in practices such as ‘requiring merchants to sign exclusive cooperation agreements preventing them from selling products on rival platforms’. This has also been done in India where the Indian regulators told e-commerce platforms to stop ‘exclusivity’ of its products which means they should be made available everywhere and not on a single platform of their choice. Alibaba has been accused recently of doing such practices which are called as “choosing one from two” meaning that you either use this platform or that one. In one strange report, a seller on Alibaba was penalized for not stopping to sell on a rival platform.
