Behind Jingdong and Shentong stopping cooperation: do e-commerce platforms have the right to help businesses choose express delivery?

On July 24, JD issued the notice on the adjustment of cooperative express service in the seller forum, which mentioned that due to the expiration of the contract between JD open platform and multiple logistics carriers including Shentong express, Guotong express, such as Fengda, etc., it is not possible to select it in the system delivery list after August 31, and it is suggested that the business should switch the logistics carrier. Several businesses confirmed the news to Sina Technology. One of the businesses said that at the beginning of this month, they received a call from the official customer service of Jingdong, and was told that the third party merchants would not be able to send Shentong express through the background, but he only knew the result of the cancellation of the cooperation, but did not know the specific reason. Today, JD open platform responded by saying that the cooperation with Shentong express expired in June last year, and since then, the two sides have been communicating continuously on the issue of renewal. At the same time, Alibaba group became the actual major shareholder of Shentong express through strategic investment. JD logistics also proposed the cooperation demand of e-commerce platform under Alibaba, which has not been responded to. “In line with the principle of fair, equal and win-win cooperation, JD and Shentong cannot reach an agreement on the renewal of the contract, and they can only suspend cooperation. But our cooperation door has always been open, looking forward to looking forward to the future with Shentong and looking for new opportunities for cooperation. ” There are two key points: one is that the cooperation has expired; the other is why the contract can not be renewed – the cooperation demand of JD logistics entering Alibaba’s e-commerce platform has not been responded. Sina technology has asked Alibaba for confirmation on the application of JD logistics to settle down, which has not yet responded. However, after the voice of the Beijing east open platform, Shentong express also showed its attitude. Shentong, after receiving feedback from merchants and outlets, the business director has been communicating with the relevant head of JD, but the problem has not been solved so far. “The other party said in communication that the termination was not related to the quality of service.” In the aspect of

< p > Shentong, the behavior of Beijing east open platform belongs to “abusing platform hegemony”, and calls on the other party to “take more responsibilities and responsibilities, and not deprive the business of the option for one’s own personal interests”. A Shentong insider described Jingdong as “only himself, no symbiosis”. “Shentong is not the first express company to be stopped, not the last one.” The person said. In fact, as early as 2017, JD had stopped cooperation with daily express and Baishi express successively, closed the service interface, and would be stopped due to “poor comprehensive service quality and violation of platform rules”. At that time, express express express express public, for the absurdity reason that Beijing Dong gives, deep regret. However, whether it is daily express or Baishi express, they are emphasizing that the behavior of Jingdong disrupts the market order. This afternoon, the event was fermenting rapidly. JD responded to the prohibition of sellers from using Shentong to ship goods on Weibo for hot search. In the comments, some users wrote, “I want to ask you, what logistics company does the business use to has the final say? Don’t businesses have the right to decide which logistics company they use? Isn’t this a tort? In an interview with Sina Technology, Li Xun, senior partner of Shanghai Hansheng law firm, said that e-commerce logistics includes two levels of cooperation: one is cooperation between the business and the express company, the other is the cooperation between the platform and the express company, but the cooperation between the platform and the express company should not be the reason to restrict the cooperation between the merchant and the express company. According to the provisions of the guidance on regulating the interconnection and sharing of express delivery and e-commerce data issued by the State Post Bureau and the Ministry of Commerce, operators of e-commerce platform shall not restrict the data interconnection and sharing, and hinder the free choice of express delivery services by the parties of e-commerce. The businesses that enter the Jingdong platform enjoy the right to operate freely and have the right to choose which express company to cooperate with. Li believes that the suspension of Shentong express in Jingdong infringes the choice of logistics companies and affects the original cooperation between some merchants and Shentong express. “Whether the service quality before or the contract expires, the impact of this reason on the business is the same, which limits the business’s independent choice.” Chenwenming, director of Zhejiang Xiaode law firm, also told sina science and technology that JD platform has no right to force termination of the contract between merchants and logistics enterprises. In fact, what kind of logistics merchants choose to use is irrelevant to JD platform. But he also mentioned that if the purpose of JD platform is to better serve consumers, it is reasonable to require merchants to switch logistics other than Shentong. Chenwenming told Sina technology that from the information disclosed, the cooperation between the two sides has expired, and there are still more than 50 logistics companies in Jingdong. JD cannot display the logistics tracking information of Shentong express. In order to better serve consumers, it is reasonable for businesses to switch their other logistics carriers. On the other hand, Alibaba Group has become the actual major shareholder of Shentong through strategic investment, while JD logistics has failed to cooperate with Alibaba on logistics. “What are the purposes and motivations of Jingdong if it is the reason for the business to terminate the use of Shentong logistics? If it is the above reasons: the market competition between JD and Ali results in depriving merchants of their independent logistics choice rights, it may be deemed as unfair competition and the illegal competition law will be deemed as the act of grabbing other people’s competitive advantage through improper means in violation of the anti unfair competition law. ” Chen believes that this will damage the interests of goodwill operators and disrupt the market fair competition order. Meanwhile, it is also suspected of violating the relevant provisions of e-commerce law: e-commerce platform operators shall not use service agreements, trading rules and technology to deal with the transactions, transaction prices and other business operators within the platform Unreasonable restrictions or additional unreasonable conditions are imposed. However, although the road ahead of official cooperation is unknown, there are many users’ feedback. They have experienced logistics distribution in Taobao shopping as JD express, but there is no logistics change. When receiving the goods, it still shows “package is waiting for collection”. A Taobao business said that the logistics situation is not updated because Taobao and Jingdong express information are not shared, users can search and query through express delivery order No. Another person related to JD logistics told Sina technology that the notice means not to prohibit JD merchants from choosing Shentong, “but in our system, it does not show order information.” According to the public data, Alibaba invested 4.66 billion yuan to join Shentong express in March 2019, and obtained 14.65% of the equity of the other party through investment in the parent company. In July of the same year, Alibaba signed an equity purchase agreement with Shentong express shareholders, which allowed Alibaba or its designated third party to acquire about 31.35% of the shares of listed companies held by the two major shareholders before Shentong within three years. In addition, Alibaba also holds 33%, 9.89%, 8.7% and 2% of the shares of Baishi group, Yuantong, Zhongtong and Yunda respectively. It is also promoting the “mass mail express” brand, which is one of the over 50 logistics carriers mentioned by jd. According to its official website, Zhongyou express focuses on the sinking market and economic business development, and the service products mainly focus on 3kg small pieces and e-commerce packages; the market position is to provide services for domestic e-commerce platforms, micro businesses and micro stores, new e-commerce, professional markets and retail customers. In June, Zhongyou express announced the opening up of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai, and said it would introduce more than 300 first-class franchisees in 2020. The competition is of course all-round. But for users, the most important and most important thing is the service experience. Useful users say that no matter which side is in the upper hand, they do not want to see a monopoly situation of its own, because it will affect its own use. There are also user sentiment: “since it is a dispute between platforms, the best solution with contract, why should consumers be involved?” Unfortunately, consumers are never outsiders.