E-Commerce War Destroys Market Order Experts Recommend Accelerating Legal Construction

In August, the Internet, which has been unsteady, has seen a resurgence. Jingdong, Suning, and Gome e-commerce between the big price war, a massive smoke-filled e-commerce war broke down.

However, after the excitement, it was discovered that this price war turned out to be a "scam." The National Development and Reform Commission's Price Supervision, Inspection, and Anti-Monopoly Bureau recently concluded the investigation of the e-commerce price war initiated by Suning, Jingdong Mall, Gome, etc., concluded that there was price fraud in e-commerce wars, and exposed the three “indictments” of price fraud. : The promotional price is higher than the original price; the price commitment has not been fully fulfilled; e-commerce companies take their unique products to participate in price comparison activities.

In this regard, the competent authorities have already interviewed relevant companies, and related companies have also started self-checking and self-correction activities. Immediately, Jingdong, Suning, and Gome also issued letters of apology in succession. The slapstick e-commerce price war has come to an end.

The data disclosed in the white paper of China’s e-commerce report shows that in 2011, China’s e-commerce transactions amounted to 588 million yuan, accounting for 12.5% ​​of the national economy, and the online retail market transaction volume reached 78.56 billion yuan, accounting for the proportion of total retail sales of consumer goods. 4.32%. The role of e-commerce in the development of the national economy is very obvious. How to standardize the development of e-commerce and establish a healthy and orderly market system has become the focus of concern for the academic community, companies, and consumers.

“At present, China has many deep-seated problems in the development of cyber-virtual economy. Particularly, the legal system construction has lagged behind the development of the online market. It must be studied in a timely manner and related laws and policies must be issued.” Director of the Policy and Law Committee of China Electronic Commerce Association, Shanghai University of Technology Prof. Yang Jianzheng, the professor, recently emphasized at the legal seminar on e-commerce development and competition order in Shanghai, “The order of the online trading market is one of immediate responsibilities.”

Consumers become price wars for electricity suppliers

A brief review of the price war between Jingdong and Suning and Gome: On August 8th, the price war began. Suning announced that the red envelope was issued every day. On August 14, Jingdong CEO Liu Qiangdong issued a microblog, saying that JD’s large electric appliances had zero gross profit within three years, and that all household appliances were at least 10% cheaper than Suning and Gome and took the lead in provoking a price war. After that, Suning Tesco said that any netizen discovered that the price of Suning Tesco was higher than Jingdong and would immediately adjust the price and pay. Gome also said immediately that the online shopping mall will be 5% lower than Jingdong Mall, and will start a price war each month. On August 15, the e-commerce war officially kicked off. Each day afterwards, each successive family resorted to their own killers and the price war was upgraded.

One after another e-commerce wars, shouting prices were lower than one, and even chanting “You dare to sell 1 yuan, I dare to sell 0 yuan” slogan, then consumers really can benefit from it, really can be Enjoy a zero profit price?

The reporter saw on Jingdong Sina Weibo that many consumers have viewed this price war very rationally, but behind consumer rationality, it is the price of growing up again and again. In 2010, Tencent suffered a software compatibility conflict with 360. The dispute between the two companies had very bad results in the entire society. Countless users were affected by it. In 2011, Taobao Mall announced new investment promotion standards, which greatly improved The annual fee for technical services has caused great dissatisfaction among small and medium sellers, affecting thousands of small and medium-sized sellers. The 2012 price war between Suning and Jingdong Mall has caused a series of chains between e-commerce companies and traditional commercial enterprises. reaction. Many netizens bluntly said that they did not believe that the e-commerce business would have a lot of solutions. Who knows whether there is zero gross profit or whether there is any gross profit?

No standard competition is destroying the market

For the price war between Jingdong, Suning, and Gome, the well-known anti-monopoly law expert and Professor Xu Shiying, director of the East China University of Politics and Law Competition Law Institute, believes that “industry competition needs to be fully launched rather than vicious competition because market competition is beneficial to To improve efficiency, a non-competitive economy is an inefficient economy, but there is no normative competition to undermine market competition."

As an expert on domestic anti-monopoly law and anti-unfair competition law, in Xu Shiying's view, the price war between Jingdong, Suning and Gome is a disorderly competition. It can also be said to be a vicious competition that will destroy the economy and destroy the market. Vicious competition. “My initial evaluation of this e-commerce price war is a disorderly stupid competition. The e-commerce industry advocates competition, but with such a large space for development, no single company can occupy the entire industry. This industry must develop healthily and must achieve a win-win situation. Be sure to maintain this competition yourself."

Xu Shiying pointed out that e-commerce can be completely upgraded from the price war to the war of quality and core competitiveness, such as after-sales service, personalized sales model and advanced technology. Now that manufacturers do not have competition, they are replaced by the competition of sellers. The products of manufacturers are basically homogenous. However, the current level of productivity in China is linked to the level of sales. To compete with the price of a fraudulent, unrealistic, hypocritical price war, the competition is very simple. No one knows whether or not there is zero margin, but the site's click-through rate is infinitely increased. In fact, there is no difference between online sales and store sales. It is low-grade competition to launch price wars to attract consumers' attention. E-commerce has huge room for development and needs competition. However, vicious competition and low-level competition must be guarded against.

The market without legal system is disorderly market

It can be seen that at present, in the rapidly evolving e-commerce market, due to the relative backwardness of legislation and law enforcement and the lagging of government management departments, extreme events continue to occur, and the damage to consumer interests is bound to occur, eventually becoming Countless times the benefits of the electricity supplier contested were impaired.

Yang Jian argued that “at present, China has many deep-seated problems in the development of cyber virtual economy, especially the legal system construction has lagged behind the development of the online market. In the Internet economy, we have not yet formed a complete and effective anti-unfair competition law. System, antitrust legal system, intellectual property protection system, economic dispute regulation system and consumer rights protection system.In the face of fierce competition in the Internet economy without borders, we must understand the urgency of Internet economic legislation in China's economic development from a strategic perspective. We will adopt practical measures to accelerate the pace of building the legal system for the Internet market, regulate the behavior of the Internet market of different economic entities, maintain the normal order of the Internet market and fair competition, and promote the sound and rapid development of the Internet economy."

Xu Shiying called for enterprises, consumers and the government to be responsible for each other. First of all, for companies, they should realize that they cannot do short-term behavior and must consider continuing development. Otherwise, they will either collapse by themselves or be false or malicious. Instead of irresponsible competition with impulse, it is better to think about how to create a new business model and be a responsible and responsible manager. This is what the society needs. Second, for consumers, most consumers It should be said to be rational, but at present, many consumers are simply interested in prices. Consumers should focus on long-term interests. When the price war reaches a certain point, the low price cake will be gone, leaving only one family. The price will surely go up. Below the cost price is called predatory pricing behavior. Merchants must finally plunder back. So consumers should not support this price war, and even resist this price war.

Finally, the government should take a shot when it's time to go. The government's intervention in the economy should not be excessive and should allow the market to function. However, when the market has problems and defects occur, the government should play a guiding role at this time. The current e-commerce legal system is not perfect. The existing legislation will enforce the law too softly. The government's normative behavior is too soft.

Yang Jianzheng finally stressed: “Our governments, enterprises, and researchers should profoundly understand the importance of developing a network economy from the perspective of national economic development, conscientiously safeguard the normal operation of the online market, and strive to make China’s e-commerce at the forefront of the world. Regulating the order of the online trading market and promoting the healthy development of e-commerce is an important guarantee for China to stand out in a new round of global competition. We must not miss the opportunity of history again because of mistakes in our strategic decisions."