Need for market order

The dispute between thousands of small and medium-sized businesses and the online shopping giant to which they are attached, reveals the weakness of the law when it comes to e-commerce.

Last week, immediately after Taobao Mall, the country's largest business-to-consumer platform, announced an up to 10-fold increase in service fees next year, thousands of small business owners united to protest online by buying up products from big sellers and then asking for refunds after giving them negative feedback.

As the protest intensified, the Ministry of Commerce was forced to intervene and it urged Taobao Mall to actively respond to the concerns of the small merchandisers.