The people's courts should maximize the leading role of the judiciary, continue to strive to create a sound legal environment, improve the level of legal governance on the platform economy in a bid to escort the healthy and vigorous development of the platform economy, said Jiang Ying, president of the Beijing Internet Court (BIC).

She made the remarks in her keynote speech at the 2024 annual conference of the Peking University E-commerce Law Research Center on Dec 21. The conference invited representatives from the governmental, industrial, legal and academic circles to share insights on exploring sound development of the platform economy. 

In her speech, Jiang said that, while the platform economy is enabling the emergence of new technologies, new forms and models, problems such as platform monopoly, algorithm discrimination, AI-related infringement and personal information leaking have also brought risks and challenges to legislation, justice and supervision. 

Jiang illustrated the current landscape of Beijing's platform economy by introducing the general situation, typical cases and the BIC's adjudication rules of the cases it has handled involving the platform economy. In terms of accurately determining the liabilities of e-commerce platforms, "development" and "standardization" must be highlighted in the adjudication concepts for such cases, she said, reflecting the court’s resolve to safeguard the sustainable development of the platform economy, as a reforming court equipped for the digital era. 

The conference also released a report on the top 10 cases from 2024 on e-commerce law. Four cases from the BIC on community group purchase, disseminating sexual rumors about a juvenile on e-platforms, online platform's unauthorized access to consumer's shopping information, and return of online-purchased blind boxes, were included on the list.