E-commerce

Taobao’s role in trademark protection – Alibaba in cooperation with CBBC

Posted on by Giovanna Carloni 

By: Ningxin Xie

Since last year, SAIC and Alibaba were fighting against each other on social media after SAIC released a white paper on Alibaba’s problems, including the high percentage of forged products. There was a user protest in 2011 against fee hike, which is claimed to be one of Alibaba’s measures to combat counterfeits. In response to these, Alibaba said they wanted to balance the right of brand owners and users. This Article tries to examine (i) why Alibaba gives new hope to brand owners, (ii) whether potential measures implemented by Taobao – one of Alibaba’s main competitors – are in line with national law, and (iii) the further steps to tackle counterfeiting.

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China’s first step to remove foreign equity cap for e-commerce companies

Posted on by Giovanna Carloni 

By: Ningxin Xie

Recently, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) released a circular notice completely removing the foreign equity cap for investment in e-commerce companies who operate online information management and transaction management services in the Shanghai Free Trade Zone (Shanghai FTZ). This month, another notice removed all restrictions to share holding percentage of such e-commerce companies in Mainland China. For the convenience of worldwide investors, such Notice allows foreign-invested enterprises to control 100 percent stakes in Chinese companies that provide e-commerce transaction services.

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Court decision threatens to cease Uber’s services and access to app in Brazil

Posted on by Giovanna Carloni 

By: Giovanna Carloni and Cleber Daniel Paiva*

Brazilian Courts have been facing the challenges imposed by technological development recently and their response seems to not be adequate with the new digital world in which we are living.

After the Court of Piauí state decided, on February this year, to suspend Whatsapp app services in the whole Brazilian territory, it was time for the Court of São Paulo State to determine the suspension of Uber, a mobile application designed to facilitate the communications between drivers and people who look for transportation.

Starting from the notification of the injunction, which was issued yesterday night (28 April, 2015), Uber will have 3 days to comply, subject to daily fines of approximately US$ 35k in case of failure to do so, limited to approximately US$ 1700k.

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