Recently, the 5th session of the Standing Committee of the 13th National People’s Congress passed the E-Commerce Law by vote. This law emphasizes the the protection of intellectual property rights, and refines intellectual property owners’ rights of“notice and deletion” as well as the platforms’ obligation of“deletion and bulletin”.

The Article 42 of the E-Commerce Law stipulates that if an intellectual property owner believes that his/her intellectual property rights are infringed, he/she has the right to notify the e-commerce platform operator to take necessary measures such as deleting, blocking, disconnecting and terminating transactions and services. After receiving the notice, the operator of the e-commerce platform shall take necessary measures in time and forward the the notice to the operator on the platform; if the operator of the e-commerce platform fails to take these necessary measures in time, they shall be jointly and severely liable for any extended damage. If a wrong notice made by the operator of the platform causes damage to operators on the platform, the operator of the platform shall bear civil liability according to the law. And if the operator of the platform maliciously issues a wrong notice and this notice causes losses to the operator on the platform, the operator of the platform shall bear double liability for compensation.

According to legal sources, fakes have always been the “original sin” of e-commerce platforms. In the past, e-commerce platforms would avoid their due responsibilities of censorship in the principle of“safe harbor”, which, in fact, directly or indirectly encourages those fake sellers. By mainly encouraging innovation and competition, while taking into account the need for regulation and management, the E-Commerce Law will play a positive role in combating fake goods and goods and preventing malicious complaints, which lays the the foundation for the future development of e-commerce.