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Securities Times reporter Nie Yinghao

Recently, Taobao, a leading e-commerce platform, announced that it will optimize its "refund only" strategy, enhance merchants' after-sales autonomy based on the new experience score, and reduce or cancel after-sales intervention for high-quality stores. The relevant strategy will be officially implemented on August 9. Taobao platform will no longer treat all merchants in a "one-size-fits-all" manner in terms of the "refund only" rule.

The "refund only" rule started with Pinduoduo. Taobao and JD.com announced their support for the rule in December 2023. Over the past year, "refund only" has become a standard feature of major e-commerce platforms. Taking Pinduoduo as an example, when consumers apply for "refund only" to the platform, if the merchant does not take action within 48 hours, the platform system will assume that the merchant agrees to the refund application and automatically initiate a refund, and consumers do not need to return the goods.

Refund but not return, this rule originally applied to goods with obvious quality problems. Major e-commerce platforms have supported the original intention of "refund only" in order to quickly solve consumer problems and optimize consumer shopping experience, thereby attracting more users and increasing user stickiness; at the same time, they also hope to strengthen the standardization of e-commerce sellers' operations and achieve the effect of "good money drives out bad money."

However, since the beginning of this year, consumers have frequently requested refunds, and many refund requests without sufficient evidence have been easily approved by the platform. The "wool party" has used this rule to damage the rights and interests of normal business operators, increasing the operating costs and pressure of merchants. For example, on July 15, the People's Court of Zhongshan County, Guangxi, quickly mediated a dispute caused by a buyer who only refunded but did not return the clothes after purchasing 11 yuan of clothes online. The buyer refunded the money and borne the 800 yuan store owner's rights protection expenses.

Under the "refund only" rule, merchants, platforms, and consumers are caught in a tense relationship: merchants have suffered from "refund only" for a long time, and platforms have forcibly intervened to handle refunds without returns, and merchants and e-commerce platforms have been in court from time to time; various versions of buyer "fleecing" tutorials and merchant rights protection and prosecution tutorials are circulating on social platforms, and the relationship between consumers and merchants is also tense.

Faced with the gradual deviation of the "refund only" policy, the regulatory authorities quickly took action to rectify the situation. In May this year, the State Administration for Market Regulation issued the "Interim Provisions on Anti-Unfair Competition on the Internet", which comprehensively sorted out unfair competition behaviors on the Internet, such as automatic price following, refund only, price breaking, etc., and clarified the legal responsibilities of operators and platforms. The regulations will be implemented on September 1. The Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee also pointed out at its meeting on July 30 that it is necessary to strengthen industry self-discipline and prevent "involutionary" vicious competition.

Times have changed. The rules of e-commerce platforms need to be continuously improved to achieve a win-win situation for consumers, merchants and platforms. Only such e-commerce platforms will become the first choice of users and merchants and ultimately form a benign and healthy e-commerce ecosystem.