CNBC AI Exclusive – China’s market regulator has unveiled draft guidelines to standardize fee structures across e-commerce platforms, signaling intensified efforts to foster equitable digital ecosystems while balancing corporate innovation and compliance. The National Administration for Market Regulation (NAMUR) released the 28-article Compliance Guidelines for Online Transaction Platform Fee Practices on May 25, opening a public consultation period before final implementation.
The framework, analysts suggest, reflects Beijing’s push to align its booming platform economy – valued at over $6 trillion in 2023 – with broader sustainability goals. Key provisions focus on five strategic pillars:
1. Fee Transparency & Equity: Platforms must establish pricing mechanisms grounded in fairness, legality, and good faith. Costs must reflect service agreements, operational protocols, and historical practices while considering merchants’ financial realities and platform operating expenses.
2. Merchant Empowerment Initiatives: In a nod to smaller businesses, the guidelines encourage flexible pricing models offering fee reductions or exemptions, particularly for SMEs. This positions platforms as collaborative partners rather than transactional intermediaries, with NAMUR emphasizing shared-growth imperatives.
3. Institutionalized Compliance: Mandating robust compliance teams and risk assessment protocols, the rules require platforms to implement pre-emptive auditing systems. These measures aim to address criticisms of opaque fee structures cited in recent antitrust investigations.
4. Behavioral Guardrails: Specific prohibitions target eight contentious practices including duplicate charges, fee-without-service schemes, and unjust cost-shifting. The guidelines formalize requirements for clear fee disclosures and voluntary promotional partnerships, safeguarding merchant rights to informed consent.
5. Accountability Mechanisms: Enhanced supervision protocols will require platforms to engage with merchant concerns and submit to regulatory audits, with industry self-monitoring emphasized to maintain competitive fairness.
Market observers note the timing coincides with regulatory reviews of algorithmic pricing models and AI-driven dynamic fee systems. “This isn’t about stifling innovation,” commented Li Wei, a digital economy analyst at Shanghai’s Fudan University. “It creates scaffolding for sustainable platform governance as transactional complexities multiply.”
NAMUR confirmed it will finalize the guidelines after evaluating public feedback, with full implementation expected by Q4 2024. The move aligns with China’s phased approach to platform economy regulation, following recent antitrust amendments and data security laws.
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