受新冠肺炎疫情影响，各国（地区）跨境电商出口行业的巨大发展潜力被激发，跨境电商企业实现快速发展。但随着新进企业数量快速上升，被投诉、被控侵权及账号被封禁等现象陆续增多，大量企业面临订单积压、濒临破产等问题。
为进一步保障跨境电商企业的经营安全，引导跨境电商企业了解和掌握国际形势变化，采取有效措施积极防范和妥善应对各类风险，国际商事争端预防与解决组织秘书处、中国服务贸易协会秘书处特别提醒企业注意以下风险：
一、平台合规风险
平台合规风险可能涉及法律、财务、商业信誉、经营能力等多方面。企业不遵守平台运行规则可能导致警告、罚款、产品扣押、禁售、封号等多方面处罚，影响企业盈利、投资信心与正常运营。另一方面，也存在某些平台滥用市场支配地位，对跨境电商企业随意警告或封号，企业无处申诉的情况。建议企业充分了解平台准入规则并积极进行合规自查，建立合规体系。如企业的合法权益受到平台或其他方侵害，应通过合法途径，采用聘请法律专家、求助行业协会和专业组织等方式充分维护自身权益。
二、知识产权侵权风险
跨境电商的全球性发展势头与知识产权保护的地域性特征之间存在先天性矛盾。B2C模式下，跨境电商经营者即使在本国享有合法知识产权，在海外的知识产权利益也难以确保受到充分保护，甚至可能导致跨境电商产品在海外平台面临下架等经营和诉讼风险。建议企业提高知识产权保护意识，高度自律，在确实存在侵权行为的情况下，应及时下架侵权商品，通过协商取得专利、商标或版权使用许可等方式和指控方进行和解，建立发展自主品牌。
三、产品质量风险
该类风险集中体现为产品出口后被投诉发生安全事故或产品质量不达标。可能使企业面临产品停止销售、行政处罚、产品召回，乃至集体诉讼的风险。建议企业展开前端调查，核实相关投诉或索赔的事实依据、诉求和事件所处阶段，并在企业内部排查产品相关情况，客观评估涉案产品存在的质量或合规问题，结合对外签署的合同和已购买保险的情况预判整体风险，并适时增购产品责任险。
四、货款结算与合同履约风险
此类风险表现为终端消费者无法按时结清货款造成合同违约、跨境物流生态化水平低导致订单无法完成、进口方信用不良等等。这将导致企业无法按时偿还贷款，或由于外汇贬值导致货款“缩水”，企业利润被压缩，或货物被拒收，交易无法达成以及迫使企业降价或做出其它让步。建议企业优先使用本国货币结算，节省汇兑成本，降低财务成本和外汇风险；有实力的出口企业可以考虑建设自己的物流企业，也可以经过充分市场调研后选择生态化水平高的跨境物流企业；加强对进口方的资信调查，出口企业可以要求进口方提供银行保函，或者缴纳押金、预付部分定金。
五、政治环境变化风险
伴随着经贸摩擦、逆全球化、贸易保护主义等问题，国际政治环境存在诸多不稳定因素，不利于跨境电商贸易的健康发展。新冠肺炎疫情爆发后，为遏制病毒传播，各国（地区）对物流、贸易都采取了更严格的出入境管制措施和卫生检疫流程，通关审核要求提高。出入境管制增加商品运输难度，严格的卫生检疫流程延长了通关时间，通关效率降低，运输成本、违约风险增加。建议企业关注相关国家（地区）政治、政策环境变化等风险因素，及时做出应变调整。
六、海关风险
主要表现为企业盗用他人信息“刷单”、“推单”、申报不实以及质量安全检测不合格等情形。企业将因此面临产品召回、罚款甚至刑事责任风险。建议跨境电商企业报关时应避免“刷单” 与“推单”。“刷单”涉嫌走私，“推单”也属于不合规的经营方式，即便不构成走私犯罪，也可能构成申报不实的违规行为。同时企业应依法接受相关部门监管，并建立完善产品召回制度。
基于以上情况，国际商事争端预防与解决组织秘书处、中国服务贸易协会秘书处特此作风险提示以供全球跨境电商企业参考。同时请企业注意，应对及维权方式应视不同国家（地区）的法律制度、争议解决方式、在先案例作不同处理。
如需进一步咨询，请联络国际商事争端预防与解决组织秘书处（邮箱：secretariat@icdpaso.org，电话：0086-10-65918576转8602）以及中国服务贸易协会秘书处（邮箱：tgf@catis.org.cn，电话：0086-10-84217221）。
国际商事争端预防与解决组织秘书处
中国服务贸易协会秘书处
二〇二一年十月九日
Risk Reminders on the International Operation of Cross-border E-commerce Companies
Issue No.1 (October 9, 2021)
Affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, the huge development potential of the cross-border e-commerce export industry in various countries (regions) has been stimulated, and rapid development was achieved by cross-border e-commerce companies. However, with the surging new entrants and the increase of complaints, alleged infringements, and account bans, a large number of enterprises are facing backlogs of orders and on the verge of bankruptcy.
To further ensure the safety operation of cross-border e-commerce companies, offer guidance for understanding and grasping changes in the international situation, and take effective measures to actively prevent and properly respond to various risks, the Secretariats of the International Commercial Dispute Prevention and Settlement Organization (ICDPASO) and the China Association of Trade in Services (CATIS) jointly remind companies to pay attention to the following risks:
1. Compliance Risks on E-commerce Platforms
Platform compliance risks may involve many aspects such as law, finance, business reputation and operating capabilities. Companies that fail to comply with the rules of the e-commerce platform may result in warnings, fines, product seizures, bans on sales and accounts, and other penalties, seriously affecting their profitability, investment confidence and normal operations. On the other hand, there are also situations where some e-commerce platforms abuse their dominant position in the market, arbitrarily warning or banning accounts of cross-border e-commerce companies, thereby companies have nowhere to appeal. In view of this, we suggest that companies should fully understand the e-commerce platform access rules, actively conduct compliance self-inspection and establish a compliance system. In case the legitimate rights and interests are infringed by platforms or other parties, companies should fully safeguard their rights and interests through legal means including hiring legal experts, seeking help from industry associations and professional organizations, etc.
2. Risks of Intellectual Property Infringement
There is an inherent contradiction between the global development momentum of cross-border e-commerce and the regional characteristics of intellectual property protection. Under the B2C model, even if they enjoy legal intellectual property rights in their home countries, cross-border e-commerce operators have difficulties in ensuring adequate protection of their intellectual property interests abroad and may even expose their products to operational and litigation risks such as being yanked off the shelf by overseas platforms. We suggest that companies should raise their awareness of intellectual property protection and maintain strict self-discipline. In the case of infringement, companies should promptly take the goods involved off the market, and settle with the accuser through negotiation to obtain patents, trademarks or copyright licenses, etc. In the meantime, companies should establish and develop a self-owned brand.
3. Product Quality Risks
Such risks are concentrated in the complaints of exported products that have caused safety incidents or have quality problems, which may expose companies to the troubles of product suspension, administrative penalties, product recalls, and even class-action lawsuits. We suggest that companies should conduct a front-end investigation to verify the factual basis, the appeals and the stage of the incident for the complaints or claims. In addition, enterprises should make a check on relevant products internally, objectively assess the quality or compliance issues of the products involved, and estimate the overall risk based on the relevant provisions of signed contracts and the coverage of the insurance, along with the additional purchase of product liability insurance in a timely manner.
4. Risks on Payment Settlement and Contract Performance
Such risks are manifested in the contract breach caused by the end consumers who fail to settle the payment on time, the unfulfilled orders occasioned by cross-border logistics providers with low eco-efficiency, and poor credit of importers, etc. Under these circumstances, companies are unable to repay loans on time, or shrinking of payments due to foreign exchange depreciation, corporate profits are compressed, goods are rejected and transactions are not be concluded so that companies have to cut prices or make other concessions. We suggest that companies should take the domestic currency for settlement as the priority to save exchange costs, reduce financial costs and foreign exchange risks. The capable export companies can consider building their own logistics companies or cooperating with cross-border logistics providers with high eco-efficiency. Export enterprises should strengthen the credit investigation on the importers, and require them for a bank guarantee, deposit or down payment.
5. Risks of Changes in the Political Environments
Along with economic and trade frictions, de-globalization, trade protectionism and other issues, there are many unstable and adverse factors of international political environments affecting the development of cross-border e-commerce trade. After the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, in order to ease the spread of the virus, countries (regions) have adopted stricter border control measures and procedures of sanitation and quarantine on logistics and trade, and requirements of the customs clearance are more stringent. The difficulty of transportation have been increased by border regulations and the time spent on customs declaration has been extended in light of the strict sanitation and quarantine procedures, so that the efficiency of customs clearance has been reduced and the cost of transportation and the risk of contract violation have risen. We suggest that companies should pay attention to the risks of the changes in the political and policy environments of relevant countries (regions) and make duly adjustments accordingly.
6. Customs Risks
It is mainly manifested in situations of “brushing order” which shop owners embezzle information to pretend to be a customer, and increase the ranking of the online store and attract customers by increasing sales and customer praises with fake shopping methods, “pushing order” which shop owners forge import and export of products, and false customs declaration to obtain illegal tax reduction, as well as false declarations, unqualified products in quality and safety inspections. Companies may therefore face risks of product recalls, fines and even criminal liability. We suggest that cross-border e-commerce companies should avoid "brushing orders" that may be suspected of smuggling crime, and "pushing orders" that is a non-compliant business operation when making customs declarations. Even if they are not accounted to a smuggling crime, those conducts may also be suspected of a false declaration. Meanwhile, enterprises should accept the supervision of relevant authorities under the law, and establish and improve product recall mechanisms.
Given the above situations, the Secretariats of ICDPASO and CATIS hereby provide risk reminders for the reference of global cross-border e-commerce companies. At the same time, enterprises are reminded that the responses and rights protection methods should be handled based on the legal systems, dispute resolution methods, and precedent cases of different countries (regions).
For further consultation, please contact:
The Secretariat of ICDPASO
E-mail: secretariat@icdpaso.org, Tel: 0086-10-65918576 ext. 8602
The Secretariat of CATIS
E-mail: tgf@catis.org.cn, Tel: 0086-10-84217221
国际商事争端预防与解决组织
International Commercial Dispute Prevention and Settlement Organization（ICDPASO）
热线电话：0086-10-65918576
电子邮箱：secretariat@icdpaso.org
联系人：国际商事争端预防与解决组织秘书处
钟先生：0086-10-65918576转8602
郝女士：0086-10-65918576转8607
咨询时间：每工作日上午9:00-12:00、下午13:30-17:00
Telephone：0086-10-65918576
E-mail：secretariat@icdpaso.org
Contacts:
Mr. Zhong: 0086-10-65918576 ext. 8602
Ms. Hao: 0086-10-65918576 ext. 8607
Working hours:
9:00-12:00a.m.and13:30-17:00 p.m. ，Monday-Friday