Workers at an express delivery company’s grid warehouse sort parcels on an intelligent express delivery line in Xinghua, East China’s Jiangsu Province on May 20, 2026. Data released by the State Post Bureau shows that from January to April, the postal industry handled 70.16 billion parcels, a year-on-year increase of 4.1 percent. Among them, express delivery volume reached 64.57 billion parcels, a year-on-year increase of 5.1 percent. Photo: VCG

China on Saturday began soliciting public opinion on draft amendments to the E-commerce Law, according to China’s State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) and the Ministry of Commerce, with newly added countermeasure provisions emerging as a key focus.

The 20-article draft amendment covers five major areas: expanding the scope of legal regulation, improving platform liability rules, clarifying regulatory coordination mechanisms, rectifying illegal practices, and deepening open cooperation in the e-commerce sector. The public comment period will run until August 4, 2026, according to a statement published on the SAMR’s website.

In recent years, China’s e-commerce industry has achieved robust growth, securing its position as the world’s largest online retail market for 13 consecutive years. In 2025, major e-commerce platforms maintained an R&D intensity of over 8 percent, while China’s cloud computing and big data services revenue surged by 13.6 percent, emerging as a vital driver of new quality productive forces. In addition, China’s cross-border e-commerce imports and exports account for over 6 percent of the country’s total goods trade, Xinhua reported.

Since the E-commerce Law took effect in 2019, the industry has developed at a breakneck pace, with live-streaming commerce, short videos, and the platform economy all surging. The relevant laws and regulations need to be upgraded to keep pace. This amendment expands the regulatory scope to include new business models and practitioners, addressing not only cross-border issues but also domestic regulatory needs, Liu Dingding, a veteran industry analyst, told the Global Times on Saturday.

Notably, the draft adds content related to deepening open cooperation in e-commerce, which is of great importance in safeguarding the legal rights and interests of domestic enterprises participating in global e-commerce businesses and in enhancing the competitiveness of China's e-commerce industry, Liu said.

E-commerce serves as a pivotal field for China’s institutional opening-up and occupies a core strategic position in global digital economic competition. It is necessary to amend the E-commerce Law, improve and expand provisions on open cooperation, industry self-discipline, external countermeasures, consultation and dispute resolution, further expand high-level opening-up in the e-commerce sector, and build a good legal environment for China’s e-commerce sector to go global, the SAMR statement noted.

Specifically, the draft proposes a new article stipulating that the competent commercial authorities under the State Council shall, in accordance with this Law and other relevant laws, conduct bilateral and multilateral consultations and negotiations and establish cooperation mechanisms for dispute resolution..

The draft also revises an article, stating that the country will advance e-commerce exchanges and cooperation with various economies worldwide, foster an open, inclusive and non-discriminatory digital economic development environment, participate in the formulation of international e-commerce rules, and promote the integration of Chinese and international rules, regulations, management and standards in fields including e-commerce transactions, payment, logistics, credit supervision and cybersecurity. It also encourages the international mutual recognition of electronic signatures, electronic identities and electronic documents.

To safeguard Chinese enterprises’ legal interests against external unfair practices, the draft adds two new articles. It specifies that if any country or region adopts discriminatory prohibitions, restrictions or other similar measures against China in the e-commerce sector in violation of international law and the basic norms of international relations, China may take corresponding countermeasures in light of actual circumstances. Meanwhile, for foreign entities that violate non-discrimination, fair trade, and transparency rules and undermine the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese citizens and enterprises in e-commerce transactions, competent commercial authorities are authorized to conduct official investigations. Based on such investigations, they may decide whether to place the foreign entities on the unreliable entity list and take measures including issuing transaction risk warnings and restricting or prohibiting the entities from engaging in e-commerce-related investment activities with China.

"These foreign-related provisions mark a significant step forward in China's legal framework for cross-border digital trade," Wang Peng, an associate research fellow at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Saturday. "By aligning domestic e-commerce rules with international standards, the amendments will help remove institutional barriers to cross-border cooperation and enhance China's voice in global digital governance. The consultation and dispute-resolution mechanisms could provide Chinese enterprises with clear legal channels to address cross-border trade frictions, while the countermeasure provisions could create a legal shield against discriminatory treatment overseas."

For a long time, regulatory standards for the digital economy have varied significantly across countries, forcing Chinese enterprises going global to adapt to multiple institutional requirements while bearing high compliance costs, Zhu Keli, founding director of the China Institute of New Economy, told the Global Times on Saturday.

Zhu further noted that the draft amendment explicitly promotes the alignment and compatibility of rules, management practices and standards in the e-commerce sector with international counterparts. This will help lower the institutional barriers for domestic e-commerce entities operating internationally, while also creating equal conditions for compliant foreign e-commerce entities to enter the Chinese market, fostering a two-way open environment for digital trade cooperation.

According to the two ministries, the amendment process will proceed after the public consultation period concludes, with the goal of enacting the revised law as soon as possible to consolidate the legal foundation for innovation and healthy development of the platform economy.