E-commerce businesses to be liable if slack on food suppliers' credentials

E-commerce operators will be held accountable if they are found not reviewing business licenses of food producers on the platforms and cause food safety problems, China's top court said.

The Supreme People's Court issued a judicial interpretation on handling food safety disputes on Wednesday, in which it further clarifies obligations of e-commerce platform operators as a stronger move to ensure food safety and protect consumers' legitimate rights.

It stipulates that e-commerce operators should conduct real-name registration for and review business licenses of those selling goods on the platforms. If the platform operators do not carry out the obligations and damage consumers' rights, they should be held liable with the food sellers or producers.

"We've paid close attention to ordering or buying food online, because such consumption has been very popular with the public," said Liu Min, deputy chief judge of the top court's No 1 Civil Division.

From 2017 to the end of June this year, Chinese courts filed about 49,000 online shopping contract disputes. Of these, more than 45 percent were related to food purchases, according to the top court's statistic.

Considering the boom of buying food online, especially during the COVID-19 outbreak, "We've specified responsibilities of e-commerce platform operators in this interpretation, hoping to urge them to be good gatekeepers to help prevent food safety problems," Zheng Xuelin, chief judge of the division, added.