China Issues E-Commerce Accreditation Rules
Techweb, 10/29/10
The new Regulations on E-Commerce Certification, announced in Beijing today, stipulate that certification will be the responsibility of the China International Electronic Commerce Center (CIECC) under the guidance of the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM). Under the new regulations, e-commerce credit rankings will fall into the levels of Excellent, Good, Acceptable, Poor, and Damaged. The assessment of credit rankings will take into account four factors:
1) Website scale, including visitor counts, user numbers, and length of operational experience;
2) Actual operations status, including company assets and number of employees;
3) Business maturity, including online customer service capacity, product categories, management ability, and company measures to protect the interests of consumers;
4) Credit history, including any fines or punishments levied against the company by governmental departments or complaints lodged by customers.
A spokesperson said that the cost for website certification will be RMB 6,000 per year, or RMB 450 per year for online store certification. The China International Electronic Commerce Center will undertake biannual reviews of certified websites. If a site's credit rating should be downgraded to "Damaged" during the course of these reviews, the site's certification will be revoked and the site will be added to a blacklist and named on MOFCOM's anti-fraud website (www.12312.gov.cn).
There are 29 websites in the first group of sites to receive certification, with a number of group buying sites including Liaoning-based 19Tuan.com, Beijing-based 24Quan.com, 321Tuan.com, t.58.com, Ftuan.com, Letyo.com, Shenzhen-based internet company Tencent's (0700.HK) QQ Tuan, Beijing-based Tuan.Yoka.com, DiDaTuan.com, Beijing-based dining LBS Dianping's t.dianping.com, Beijing-based Lashou.com, Manzuo.com, Beijing-based MeiTuan.com, furniture group buying site Qeeka.com, Shandong-based SLSTuan.com, Internet company Sohu's (Nasdaq: SOHU) tuan.sohu.com, Shijiazhuang-based Tuanlehui.com, Guangzhou-based Tuanmeihui.com, SaaS company UFIDA's (600588.SH) group buying platform K.cn, Beijing-based 55Tuan.com, Guangzhou-based WNNet.net, Shanghai-based Xituan.com, Beijing-based XianzaiTuan.com, Beijing-based ShuangTuan.com, 99114.com, and women's group buying site AiAiTuan.com. Other sites included Chinese testing information site BKW.cn, VOD site VODone.com, and dining reservation site Fantong.com. Two of the companies certified had assets of more than RMB 100 mln; nine more had assets of more than RMB 10 mln. 17 companies had initial credit ratings of "Outstanding" or "Good."
Editor's Note: For more background on this topic, please see "China to Release E-Commerce Certification Regulations" MD 9/29/10 and "Chinese Government Certifies 20 Group Buying Websites" MD 10/27/10 issues.
Keywords: government policy credit rating e-commerce Internet certification Ministry of Commerce customer service group buying regulation CIECC
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