Either-or choice they give retailers will harm e-commerce platforms

A NEW E-COMMERCE PLATFORM recently revealed that one of its retailers said it had to cut a number of jobs due to the "either-or choice" it was forced to make by another platform. Beijing News comments:

The "either-or" ultimatums are an "exclusive" means of competition among e-commerce platforms, meaning a platform will often force stores to make a choice between it and other platforms and sell goods and services of only those stores that deal exclusively with it. The e-commerce platforms usually succeed in forcing stores to make such a choice through compulsory means such as "flow restriction" and "search shielding". According to media reports, when platforms launch such measures, a store with a monthly sale of 10 million yuan ($1.41 million) can be reduced to zero and disappear from the sight of customers.

On the surface, this is just a commercial competition between enterprises and there is no problem in platforms being encouraged to participate in the competition with better services and technology upgrading, so as to obtain "exclusive cooperation" with retailers. However, if the "punishment" is carried out as a means of coercion, it will violate the rules of normal competition.