Abstract:
The 15th Five-Year Plan makes clear that the modernization of agriculture and rural areas must be accelerated, and that all-round rural revitalization must be steadily advanced. Against this background, new-generation e-commerce platforms, which have evolved from traditional e-commerce platforms, possess "private power" affecting the public interest because they combine the dual attributes of both "enterprise" and "market"; accordingly, they bear a contemporary obligation to promote rural revitalization. Owing to their enabling and integrative functions, new-generation e-commerce platforms have become key vehicles for rural revitalization, and they further promote rural revitalization by reshaping the operating model of traditional agriculture through multiple pathways. However, when measured against the objectives of rural revitalization, these platforms still exhibit abuses of "private power" in the stages of access, operation and redress. Through an examination of the internal operation of new-generation e-commerce platforms and a study of relevant foreign regulatory rules, this article argues that, in order to legally ensure that such platforms fulfill their obligation to promote rural revitalization, a legal framework should be established across three levels—foundation, core and safeguard—and throughout the whole process of access, operation and redress. At the access stage, blacklist and grey-list clauses for platform rules should be established, and the authority to modify platform rules should be clearly allocated. At the operation stage, transparency obligations and a filing system should be introduced to address algorithmic black boxes, and the traffic monopoly of new-generation e-commerce platforms should be broken. At the redress stage, the internal appeal procedures and sanction mechanisms of platforms should be required to comply with the principles of procedural justice and proportionality, and a sound external redress mechanism should be established.