Legality risks of cross-border e-commerce parallel imported goods and opportunities for emerging e-commerce platforms

In recent years, China’s cross-border e-commerce industry has flourished, driven by positive factors such as support from national policies and the establishment of bonded zones. However, as the scale continues to expand, the legal risks of parallel imported goods have gradually become apparent. This article will discuss the risks of unclear legality of the sources of imported goods, risks of trademark abuse, and risks of temporary transit legality, and briefly introduce several high-profile parallel-imported car e-commerce platforms to provide new blue ocean opportunities for Chinese sellers.

The risk of unclear legality of the source of imported goods

Overseas goods sold on cross-border e-commerce platforms are usually obtained without the permission of the trademark owner and are only obtained through various channels, such as processing factories, supermarket chains, discount stores or buyers. Due to various channels, the quality of products is often not guaranteed. The overseas nature of the goods makes it difficult to determine their origin. To identify whether the goods are parallel imported goods, it is necessary to trace their origins. This involves a complex certification process, including contract documents and customs declaration forms, which is a challenge for consumers. A tedious task. Merchants are often unwilling to provide these materials, making product traceability extremely difficult.

Risk of trademark abuse of parallel imported goods

Trademark parallel import means that a certain trademark obtains trademark protection in different countries, and goods are imported from one country to another country for sale without authorization. In the issue of trademark rights, when the trademark rights are exhausted, authorized individuals or units can sell the goods with the trademark logo, and the relevant rights holders cannot claim exclusive rights. This right is called the first sale principle and is intended to protect the public interest while not harming the legitimate rights and interests of the trademark owner. However, if the trademark owner still charges trademark usage fees in cross-border consumption, it will constitute a secondary charge, which may be regarded as an abuse of trademark rights and exceeds the scope of trademark rights.

Temporary transit legality risks of parallel imported goods

The Chinese government has adopted a series of policy measures to promote the development of cross-border e-commerce, including the establishment of additional bonded zones. With the expansion of scale, the warehousing problem of cross-border overseas shopping has become increasingly prominent. More and more cross-border overseas purchases use bonded warehousing and commodity exhibition and sales functions to improve consumption efficiency and reduce transportation costs. In cross-border e-commerce, platforms or sellers can pre-purchase goods based on sales data and store them in free trade zones or bonded zones. This approach speeds up the consumer shopping experience, reduces wait times, and reduces shipping costs. However, if these goods are not sold, they will be regarded as temporary transit, that is, temporarily stored in China’s bonded area, and the sales area may be other countries. At present, China’s legal and regulatory system in this regard is not yet complete, and it is impossible to determine the legality of these parallel imported goods.

Introduction to emerging cross-border e-commerce platforms

Newegg: Open new bonuses for Chinese sellers

Newegg is a long-established e-commerce platform in the United States with excellent market reputation. Recently, it has just started recruiting Chinese sellers. At present, the number of Chinese sellers is still relatively small, which brings huge opportunities to sellers who settled early. The advantage of Newegg is that it is very easy to generate orders, the price per customer is relatively high, the store is relatively stable and not easy to be banned. However, it should be noted that the platform performs well in electronic and digital 3C products, while other categories of products may be relatively difficult to sell.

Allegro: New opportunities for Polish e-commerce giants

Allegro is the largest e-commerce platform in Poland and is known as the Polish version of Taobao. Poland has a population of about 40 million, of which more than 30 million have downloaded and used this platform. The repurchase rate is as high as 90%, which is almost a miracle in the field of e-commerce. Although the market is relatively new, competition is still relatively small. The blue ocean opportunity for this platform lies in its initial recruitment of Chinese sellers. With the influx of Chinese sellers, competition is bound to increase, so now is a good time to enter.

Coupang: the new hot spot of Korean e-commerce

Similar to the first two platforms, Coupang is one of the largest e-commerce platforms in South Korea. Since recruiting Chinese sellers, the platform has attracted the attention of a large number of Chinese sellers. In the early days, even novice sellers can easily achieve high net profits, making it a money-making opportunity for a period of time. However, competition has increased over time, but it’s still worth a try for sellers interested in running a boutique.

Ozon: opening up new areas in the Russian e-commerce market

Ozon is the largest e-commerce platform in Russia. Russia has always been a dream market for Chinese sellers, and the traffic of the Ozon platform is much larger than other platforms such as AliExpress and Joom. On the Ozon platform, Chinese sellers can almost issue orders on the same day, providing an excellent opportunity for sellers entering the Russian market.

In summary, these parallel imported car e-commerce platforms provide Chinese sellers with a broad international market. Each platform has its own unique characteristics and opportunities, and sellers should choose the most suitable platform based on their products and development strategies. Whichever platform you choose, a deep understanding of the local market and regulations is required to ensure smooth entry and success. The cross-border e-commerce industry will continue to develop, providing sellers with more opportunities and challenges.