Government policy, regulations, and legal developments affecting global commerce and retail.
China’s SAMR and commerce ministry opened a 20-provision draft amendment to the 2019 E-commerce Law for public comment, widening platform-economy oversight. The revision tightens platform liability and pledges to defend Chinese firms operating abroad.
Billions of undervalued DDP parcels enter the EU almost unchecked, dodging duty and VAT while local retailers pay in full. How the loophole works, and why the EU keeps waving it through.
Three fresh regulatory tells (an FTC injunction, Virginia’s live auto-renewal law, and NYC’s first municipal rule) point to a US subscription-commerce compliance reckoning. The signals suggest “cancel as easily as you enrolled” becomes the de facto national standard by year-end 2026.
The European Court of Justice dismissed Google’s final appeal, confirming a 4.1 billion euro fine for abusing Android to entrench Search and Chrome. The ruling ends an eight-year antitrust battle with binding consequences for app-marketplace rules.
Three fresh regulatory signals point to the EU consolidating a two-track marketplace regime, binding commitments plus a customs cost stack, on China-founded platforms. The pattern suggests Shein and Temu face binding commitments or a second penalty before year-end 2026.
The 200 million euro Temu fine and Shein’s open DSA case point to a sustained enforcement posture, not a one-off. The pattern suggests a second major penalty on a Chinese marketplace is likely before the end of Q1 2027.
A regulatory pincer is closing on e-commerce checkout design across the EU and UK, and the pattern suggests the first binding outcomes land before the 2026 holiday peak. The June 19 financial-services dark-pattern ban, a 200 million euro DSA fine, and live UK enforcement point the same direction.
Three regulatory signals point to tougher US subscription-cancellation rules through H2 2026: the FTC’s revived negative-option rulemaking, a $35m Shutterstock settlement, and a state-law cancellation cascade. Expect operators to retool cancel flows before year-end.
South Korea’s privacy regulator has fined Coupang 624.7 billion won (about USD 409 million), the largest data-breach penalty in the country’s history, over a leak tied to roughly 37.5 million accounts. The New York-listed retailer says it will challenge the ruling as the case fuels a wider US-Korea dispute.
State bans and disclosure laws, not a federal rule, are likely to set the operative limits on personalized algorithmic pricing, pushing national retailers toward a uniform non-personalized standard before the 2026 holiday season.