Lixian, Cong --- "Chinese e-Commerce (2) and Legal Environment" [2011] ELECD 847; in Kariyawasam, Rohan (ed), "Chinese Intellectual Property and Technology Laws" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2011)

Book Title: Chinese Intellectual Property and Technology Laws

Editor(s): Kariyawasam, Rohan

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781849800082

Section: Chapter 10

Section Title: Chinese e-Commerce (2) and Legal Environment

Author(s): Lixian, Cong

Number of pages: 26

Extract:

10. Chinese e-commerce (2) and legal
environment
Cong Lixian1

Chapter 9 provided an overview of IT, computer software and
e-commerce. This chapter extends the discussion of e-commerce. In defin-
ing e-commerce, governments and international organizations worldwide
have arrived at different conclusions. For example, the US government in
its `global framework for electronic commerce' has restricted the defini-
tion to the use of the internet to conduct various business activities such
as advertising, buying and selling of goods and services, and other similar
transactions taking place globally. Likewise, the European Parliament
and the United Nations Economic Co-operation and Development
Organisation upholds a similar but broader definition of e-commerce,
characterizing it as a range of business activities conducted electroni-
cally. However, the World Trade Organization (WTO) work program on
e-commerce includes e-commerce by encompassing not only cross-border
and consumption abroad activities which are performed by way of the
internet but also the transactions which are conducted using telecommu-
nication networks or any other electronic information technology for pro-
duction, marketing, sales and distribution.2 As information technology
and business networks undergo maturation, e-commerce has also been
associated with great potential for development. The rise of electronic
commercial transactions as a popular means of trade has required regula-
tors to focus on the adoption of relevant policies and laws to regulate this
emerging business activity, to ensure greater security on the internet, to
promote fair trade, and finally to attain a more sustainable ...